Transformers Prime: The Fate's Way
by WindySilver
Summary: TFP AU (wide alterings to TFP storyline!) Alyssa Rinne is but a normal 14-year-old, studying and spending time with her friends. However, fate has another way for her, and as she and her parents end up kidnapped by Decepticons, she finds herself joining the ancient war between the Autobots and the Decepticons. What will fate throw in her way?
1. Chapter 1: The First Encounter

The school bell rang. The students were leaving the school. Some ran, some walked. The weekend had finally begun. Four girls were walking with no rush.

"What are you up to this weekend?" asked the girl, with long, brown hair. Her name is Alyssa.  
"I'll go to visit my oldest sister with Thom", answered Lin, the girl with short and black hair. She was the tallest of them.  
"I'm gonna hang out at the town. I have really no plans", answered Selena, the redheaded girl.  
"Me neither. We could hang out together. What about you, Alyssa? You're gonna spend the weekend at your family's summer cottage, eh?" said Marie, the blond with a single ponytail.  
"Yeah. The weather broadcast forecasts that the whole weekend will have a sunny weather, so I'll enjoy it while I have the chance", Alyssa told.  
"Yeah, it's so annoying to mold at school when the weather is the best ever!" Selena noted.  
"We know, right?" Lin noted.  
"Yeah. And hey, Alyssa, I know that you don't care about horoscopes, but the latest horoscope told, that this weekend those with the same astrological sign will get a very big change in their lives", Marie told. "So I just decided to tell you, just in case."  
"Okay, I'll keep that in mind. But I have to go now. Have a good weekend, you guys! See ya on Monday!" Alyssa said and left, dismissing Marie's talks about horoscope. Like Alyssa herself had noticed, most of the time they didn't come true. She saw that her mother was already waiting for her.  
"How was the school today?" her mother asked.  
"Quite fine. Some boys haven't STILL realized that the holiday is already over", Alyssa answered. Her mother laughed.  
"The boys are boys, aren't they?" she said.  
"Yeah. Unfortunately", Alyssa mumbled.

Some hours later Alyssa was already sitting outside the summer cottage, enjoying the cool wind and the nature's voices.  
 _Oh, I wish life could be nothing but this_ , she thought.

The wind's blow made the trees' leaves rustle against each other. The sun was warming nicely. Some birds tweeted. Alyssa wished nothing else than that this relaxing moment would last forever.  
"Are you sunbathing?" a voice broke the charm and Alyssa opened her eyes, starting. It was her father who had broken the moment's charm.  
"No. Just relaxing", Alyssa grumbled. Her father laughed a little bit and sat down to another chair.

Alyssa's mother came pretty soon, and told: "The dinner is ready."

Alyssa stood up from her chair, but before she could say anything, three black and purple, weird-looking planes (or were they even some sort of fighter-jets?) flew very fast over them. They flew very low, so low that they almost touched the treetops.  
"What was that?!" Alyssa's father shouted.  
"Like I'd know!" Alyssa said, suddenly frightened. Those jets didn't look like they were even from Earth!  
"They don't look familiar to me, either! They must be something very new!" Alyssa's mom noted.

The jets turned around and came back the way they came from.  
"They're coming back!" Alyssa noted uselessly. The jets flew over them once again and then made a sharp turn and started to fall.  
"They're coming down!" Alyssa's mom shouted.  
"WE NOTICED!" Alyssa yelled back. She was backing away, ready to turn her back on the jets and run as they came.

Suddenly the three jets transformed into giant robots. They were even higher than the house! But Alyssa did not say anything. She just gasped and walked backwards slowly.  
"What on Earth are they?!" her father asked.

The robots came closer to the family. The three humans backed away, but when the robots grabbed them, there was nothing they could have done.

All Alyssa knew was that she thought she was going to die now. After that everything blacked out.

The first thing Alyssa noticed after that was that she was hanging from her wrists. Her vision sharpened slowly and when she noticed, where she was, a quiet shriek came out of her mouth.

She was hanging from metal chains that were fastened around her wrists. And she was hanging high. _Very high._  
 _Don't look down_ , she commanded herself in her mind. _Don't look down._

So, instead of looking down, she looked to the left. She saw her father, hanging from chains just like her.  
"Dad!" Alyssa called.  
"Alyssa, are you all right?" was the answer.  
"I'm fine. What about you?" Alyssa answered. Before her father could answer, mumbling was heard from Alyssa's right side. She looked there, seeing her mother.  
"Mom!" she shouted.  
"Where are we?" her mother asked.  
"I dunno. Somewhere very high", Alyssa asked, looking down again. She gulped, cursing her fear of heights.

Before she could tell herself to look up, the doors in front of them opened up and a robot came in. This robot had a dark grey paintjob, red eyes and a red crest on its head - or was it a helmet, Alyssa wondered through her fear.  
"So, you have woken up", the robots said with a masculine voice.  
"Err… Who are you?" Alyssa managed to ask.  
"My name is Starscream", the robot answered.  
"So, uh, mister Starscream, where are we? And why are we here?" Alyssa's father asked. Starscream looked at him.  
"You're here, because we need your… assistance", the robot answered. His tone was as slick as the robot himself seemed to be.  
"Assistance on what?" Alyssa's mother asked, distrusting of this being in front of them.  
"Leading the Autobots into a trap", was the answer from Starscream.  
"What do we have to do, then?" Alyssa's mother asked.  
"Stay here and try to call for help", Starscream answered tersely.  
"Yeah, sure, it's very easy to call the Autobots with a cell phone with both hands in chains over the head and without knowing the phone number!" Alyssa said, her voice full of sarcasm.

Starscream reacted very fast: he turned away from Alyssa's mother and smacked Alyssa with the back of his hand. Alyssa let out a powerful scream of pain as she swayed on the air, being held by the chains that chafed her wrists in the pace of her swaying. She soon felt some blood coming down from her wrists; her skin had been broken. Her stomach and lungs hurt as she tried to get back the air Starscream had just hit out of her.  
"Alyssa!" the girl's parents shrieked. Alyssa didn't say anything. She was just gasping, not daring to look Starscream into eyes.  
"We can also make some fake calls if we feel that it's useless to try to talk sense to primitive life forms like you", Starscream hissed. "We can kill you right away if you decide to not to cooperate."

Alyssa wanted to ask, why Starscream and his pals weren't already making fake calls, but she decided not to risk her and her parents' wellbeing. No one said anything. Starscream said nothing more, just left the room.  
"Alyssa, are you all right?" Alyssa's mother asked, worried about her daughter.  
"Still alive. When I get back to school, I need something to cover my wrists. 'Cause everyone will just think that I've been cutting myself, not being chained by some giant robots", Alyssa answered, now rising her head up, looking to the door which had just closed, sealing their only way to escape the giant alien prison. "We'll get outta here. Because we will."

 **/Author's note: Transformers Prime (c) Hasbro, the humans of this story (c) Me/**


	2. Chapter 2: The Rescue

"Optimus! I've just intercepted a message on the widespread frequency. And… I think you should hear this," said Ratchet, the Autobot medic.  
"A message?" asked Arcee, the only female Autobot in Team Prime.  
"Yes. A quite disturbing one," Ratchet answered.  
"Play it, Ratchet. It may be important," Optimus said.

Ratchet turned on the intercepted message. A young female voice said, "Is this working? Oh, God, please tell me it's working. Help! Somebody help me! Does anybody hear me? Hey, if anyone can hear me, please help! I'm on some sort of a ship in the middle of giant robots who captured my family! Someone help us to get out here, please!"

Then that voice screamed, and another voice, this time masculine, said, "So there you are, you puny fleshling. To be honest, I'm quite impressed that you made this far. But it ends now."  
"It's Starscream!" Cliffjumper noted quickly.  
"No! Don't! Stay away from me! Agh, let me go! LET ME GOOOOO!" the female voice shrieked.  
"A human is caught by the Decepticons?" Bulkhead asked.  
"It seems that not only one, but more of them. And they are in danger. Ratchet, how long age was that message sent?" Optimus said.  
"Hardly a klik ago. And I have the coordinates. You may still get to the Decepticon warship if you go through the GroundBridge now," Ratchet answered.  
"Then it's settled. The Decepticons have imprisoned innocent humans. It is possible that they plan to use them as hostages. We must go and rescue them. Ratchet, open the GroundBridge to the location of that message," Optimus said.  
"Understood, Optimus. Good luck to you all. I'll open the GroundBridge again if you fall down after passing through," Ratchet said, opening the GroundBridge as he spoke even though he did not approve this course of action himself. As only a medic, though, he had little to say about it as everyone in the team was in good condition.  
"Autobots, roll out!" Optimus carried out his command. He left with the rest of the Autobots. Only Ratchet stayed to make sure the others will get back when they have rescued the humans. Or when they have found them dead.  
"I'll never understand Optimus's willing to risk ourselves for a few humans. Isn't there still enough of them on this planet?" Ratchet mumbled to himself. He knew it was no point arguing with the Autobot leader about it, even though he had attempted to talk to Optimus about it without success; If Optimus was adamant about something to the point of stubbornness, it was on protecting the innocent humans.

On the Decepticon warship, the Autobots ended up into an empty storage room.  
(We made it!) Bumblebee beeped.  
"Yes. We actually made it," Bulkhead confirmed.  
"We must be quick. While we're here, we're walking to the trap and endangering the captured humans. Let's go," Optimus said.

The Autobots left the storage room, seeing that the corridor was empty. They stalked forward, listening intently to hear if someone was coming to their direction. Optimus pointed the direction and they went on, weapons ready.

It did not take long, when they heard footsteps. The Decepticons were coming!  
"This way!" Arcee hissed after she noticed a door.  
"Quickly," Optimus said. He knew as well as the others that if they were caught now, there would be no hope to rescue the humans. Unless one of them would get away and find them…

Alyssa was so fed up with hanging around. She had made the hoax message to lure the Autobots into a trap, and then Starscream had not only grabbed her hard, but also put her harshly back the chains. She felt her wrists starting to bleed again.  
"Alyssa?" she heard her father asking.

"I'm fine. Though it's starting to feel like my hands will cut off due to these chains," Alyssa answered.  
"What about the message?" her mother asked.  
"I did it. It should be enough,", Alyssa answered and heard her stomach grumbling. It had been what felt like forever since the last time she ate or drank anything.  
"Will we… will we be freed soon?" Alyssa's mother asked.  
"Probably not. When those freaks have gotten the Autobots out of the order, they'll probably just kill us. If we don't starve first," Alyssa answered. "But we have to hope for the best."  
"It's not an easy thing now," Alyssa heard her father say.  
"We have to believe in the Autobots. They'll find us. We have to believe so," Alyssa said as much to herself as to her parents. She did not know why she put that much confidence in those mysterious robots who were the enemies of their captors. Maybe it was just because there was nothing else to do, and they seemed to be their only hope of ever seeing the daylight again.

"They left," Arcee mumbled, "and I heard them saying that the other one was coming from the cells. They talked about the humans."  
"Then we'll go to see the direction they came from," Optimus said.  
(We must hurry!) Bumblebee said.  
"'Bee is right. The 'Cons will probably feel soon that the humans aren't worth of keeping alive anymore. Let's go already!" Cliffjumper said.

The Autobots left, with their guards up. After avoiding Decepticon contact they found the exact cell where the humans were. Bulkhead blasted the door open. The human family lifted their heads at the very instant.  
"Look out!" shrieked the youngest of them. Bulkhead got the warning just in time: some Decepticons attacked at the instant the door was fully open. The green Autobot dodged the first shots while the others started to shoot Vehicons, making sure they did not hit the humans.  
"On the left, on the left!" shouted the girl. Optimus noticed more Vehicons, Starscream and Breakdown coming to their direction.  
"Bumblebee, Cliffjumper and Bulkhead, take the humans!" Optimus ordered. The three Autobots stopped shooting and ran to the cell and broke the chains that kept the humans up in the air. After the family had gotten the chains off their wrists, the three Autobots transformed and left first.  
"Autobots, retreat!" Optimus ordered. He transformed at the same time as Arcee and took off after the rest of the Autobots.  
"Ratchet, open the GroundBridge! We need to get out of here!" Cliffjumper was the first to contact the base.  
(Look out, Cliffjumper!) Bumblebee warned.  
"What… WHOA!" Cliffjumper shouted when Knock Out crashed at him. Alyssa, who was onboard, screamed as Cliffjumper flew some rounds in the air before landing on the wheels.  
"What are you waiting for? Drive!" she shouted.  
"Just a sec, I need to recover from that. Ah, my optics… Now it's clear!" Cliffjumper said and continued, next to Optimus, passing past Knock Out.  
"Don't let them get away!" they heard Starscream shouting. A fighter jet was flying after them, shooting at them.  
"He's gaining on us!" Bulkhead said.  
"Not for long!" Arcee said, transformed, shot at Starscream and transformed back to a motorcycle, with Starscream falling down screaming. _How appropriate for someone with "scream" in their name_ , Alyssa mused.  
"Ratchet, do you copy?" Optimus asked.  
"Yes, I'm trying to get a fix on you. It's a bit difficult. Try to stay without damage for half a klik," Ratchet's answer was heard. Bulkhead started to count nanokliks for the time when the GroundBridge should open up.

Right as Bulkhead reached 42, the GroundBridge opened up. The Autobots disappeared into it, leaving the Decepticons to their warship.  
"Whoa! What's this?!" Alyssa exclaimed.  
"This is what a GroundBridge looks like on the inside," Cliffjumper said.  
"I see," Alyssa said with a pause. "So, what's a GroundBridge?"  
"Our way to get wherever on this planet in seconds," Cliffjumper said.  
"That's awesome! What are you, anyway? Or where have you come from? You can't be from Earth! Not in my lifetime!" Alyssa said, excited.  
"Ha-ha, take it easy, little one. You'll find it out soon, I'm sure of it," Cliffjumper chuckled.

The GroundBridge ended and it revealed the Autobot base. For a second, Alyssa feared they had not made it out of the warship, but no one seemed to be think anything was out of normal. Cliffjumper, Bumblebee and Bulkhead let the humans get out before any of the Autobots transformed. Alyssa gaped at them, astounded.  
"You so are not from Earth," she said quietly.  
"So, did anyone get hurt?" asked the red and white mech who had been there waiting for them.  
"The 'Cons got most of the damage," Bulkhead told and gave a laugh.  
"Yeah, they didn't stand a chance, not even in their own trap!" Cliffjumper said boastfully.  
(And we also managed to rescue the humans!) Bumblebee beeped.  
"We sure showed the 'Cons," Arcee noted with satisfaction.

Optimus looked at the humans, noting that while the two older humans, the parents, looked at the Autobots with fear, the young girl was just amazed. Optimus kneeled down to get closer to the human family. The humans backed away as the Autobots' attention concentrated on them.  
"You have no need to fear. We won't hurt you," Optimus promised.  
"How do we know?" asked Alyssa's father. "How do we know that you aren't one of them, just pulling a devious trick on us?"  
"You must trust us," Optimus answered.  
"Come on, dad! At least these guys haven't chained us! Or smacked us around like that gray, winged creep did!" Alyssa blurted.  
"You mean Starscream?" Arcee asked.  
"Guess that was his name," Alyssa said and shrugged, then crossed her arms. "If he wasn't so tall, I'd kick his butt. And I'd kick HARD!"

Cliffjumper sneered in amusement.  
"You sure are a feisty human. I really wish you could actually kick him. I'd LOVE to see that!" he said.  
"Really?" Alyssa asked.  
"Really," Cliffjumper answered, smiling.  
"So… What are you going to do to us?" Alyssa's mother asked. "Will you imprison us, too?"  
"No, we won't imprison you. But we must ensure your safety, because the Decepticons will come after you," Optimus told.  
"How?" Alyssa's father asked, suspicious.  
"We will keep track on the Decepticon activity around your usual locations, and if the Decepticons attack humans, we'll come and stop them from doing harm to you," Optimus explained.  
"Really? And what about us? We'll just live like none of this never happened?" Alyssa asked.  
"Yes!" answered Ratchet. "Were you thinking you could actually stay here? You're tiny! You could easily get crushed by us on the floor! And we wouldn't even notice that!"  
"Hey, I could watch out! And just in case you need some help with something like traffic rules, I could help you! I mean you can become vehicles that go around the human traffic, so you'd really need to know the rules and obey them. Otherwise you could hurt someone badly!" Alyssa said.  
(She does have a point,) Bumblebee noted.  
"Uh… What did you say? I didn't understand," Alyssa's father said, confused.  
(I said that she does have a point,) Bumblebee said more slowly.  
"Err… I still didn't understand," Alyssa's father said, still confused.  
"He said that I do have a point," Alyssa told.  
"You actually understood it?" Bulkhead was the one to ask.  
"Yes. It was a bit difficult, but I actually did understand what he said," Alyssa answered.  
"Hmm… I do understand if you have interest to help us, but this isn't your war. This is war between us Autobots and the Decepticons. We don't wish that humans would be involved with it," Optimus told.  
"Hey come on, dude! The war is going on right here on Earth, isn't it? How could we not get involved with it?" Alyssa asked. "My wrists are the worst ever since the car accident three years ago! I CAN'T let those Decepti-whatever get away with it!"  
"It is too dangerous," Optimus said.  
"What if I just stay here and tell about something you need to know when you're going around the humans? I won't get involved with the battles, would I? THAT would be a safe arrangement, right?" Alyssa insisted.  
"You aren't just feisty. You're stubborn too!" Cliffjumper noted, amused by how someone as small as Alyssa could argue against Optimus Prime, the leader of the Autobots.  
"Alyssa, I think you shouldn't get involved with this," Alyssa's mother said quietly.  
"Weren't we all already involved when those Decepti-dudes kidnapped us?" Alyssa asked.  
"We should just walk away from here and live like this never happened," Alyssa's mother said.  
"Yeah, a very easy thing to do. Tell that to my wrists," Alyssa noted and showed her scarring wrists. "It'll take forever before my wrists are completely healed. I have to wear something that covers them until then, so at least _I_ can't forget this!"  
"Optimus, what should we do with them?" Ratchet asked, uneasy.  
"We have to think about it. It is true that humans could help us to blend into the human traffic in our vehicle modes, but accepting their help risks their lives," Optimus told.  
"But the Decepticons will be after these three now. They've seen us. And they know about their threat!" Arcee noted.  
"Whoa, whoa, whoa! Hey, honestly, I'm not going to get involved with some feud of giant robots! And neither are you, Alyssa!" Alyssa's father exclaimed.  
"Hey, I'm not gonna walk away from a chance to have a life much more purposeful than anything a normal human could! Just seriously, look at what we've been pulled into! How could ANYONE just walk away from something like this?" Alyssa argued.  
"Someone who knows what's good for anyone would walk away because it's reasonable! Getting involved with a war of giant robots is NOT!" Alyssa's father said.  
"You can't decide what I wanna do and what I'm gonna do! And I'm gonna help these guys to understand this planet!" Alyssa yelled. "And that's that!"  
(Hey, stop. Please, stop!) Bumblebee beeped.  
"And you stay away from this, beeper!" Alyssa's father yelled in rage. Bumblebee hesitated but decided to be quiet. Alyssa's father's words had hurt him, and Alyssa noticed that. She turned her back to her father and looked at Bumblebee.  
"I apologize for him… What's your name? I don't recall hearing it," she said.  
(I'm Bumblebee. And you don't need to mind me,) Bumblebee said.  
"I can't help minding if someone actually is as rude as my father to anyone I hardly even know," Alyssa told and glared at her father shortly.  
"I guess this breaks what Ratchet thinks about your species. You aren't all just cold people towards us, even though we're aliens," Bulkhead noticed.  
"I'm all against racism. I have lots of friends from different countries, religions, and so on. Though as far as I know, none of my friends is an alien," Alyssa told. "But it would be sooo awesome to have an alien as a friend, seriously!"  
"Blah! Humans!" Ratchet scorned and turned to do some work on the base's main computer.  
"Please don't mind Ratchet. He just isn't that… social," Arcee said.  
"Okay, I understand!" Alyssa said with a bright smile. Ratchet's disdain did not spoil her happiness, because she was there, right in the middle of some giant alien robots from far away. Her normal life had turned into a science fiction story.

Alyssa turned to face Optimus and she asked: "Please let me help you guys! I seriously wanna help you to understand Earth and its people! Can you at least consider it, _please_?"

Optimus looked at the small human, seeing the strong desire to be part of the lives of the Autobots. To be the one who could help them to understand humans. To be something more than any normal human could ever. And Optimus knew, that he now had a tough decision to make.

 **/Author's note: Transformers Prime (c) Hasbro, the humans of this story (c) Me/**


	3. Chapter 3: Decision of Her Life

Optimus looked at Alyssa's parents with a questioning look. The two adults looked back.  
"I give up. Alyssa has decided to risk her life with you guys. There's nothing I can do to change it," Alyssa's father said. He had had enough of this crap.  
"She's like grandma Priet: unwavering. Guess your decision will determine her path about you guys," Alyssa's mother told.  
"I see," Optimus said with a short nod. Alyssa waited, silent and trying to keep her impatience under control, but she felt her heart pounding wildly as she waited the decision of the Autobot leader.  
"If I may say something, Optimus, I think we should accept her offer. When we drive among the human traffic, we tend to get attention… and some at least seemingly bad reactions from the driving humans. We really need to learn how to go around them," Arcee told.  
(Yeah, wherever we drive, many of the drivers show one of their fingers to us when we are a problem around the traffic,) Bumblebee said.

Alyssa bit her lip. She was quite sure she guessed right which finger it was. But she did not say it aloud. Her parents had also already come to the same conclusion.

Optimus looked at his team. Ratchet had bothered to turn and look at them. When the grumpy medic was excluded, no one was against Alyssa's joining to Team Prime. He now looked at Alyssa.  
"Alyssa, if you decide to join our team, I must warn you that you may not be safe even here. There is always the risk that despite of the high protection level and cloaking the Decepticons may find our base. It would put you to a great risk," he told.  
"No worries, I know the risks! And I accept them!" Alyssa said eagerly. A part of her mind noted that her enthusiasm to join a group of alien robots could end up costing her life, yet she ignored it.  
"And also, you must never tell about us or our location to anyone," Optimus said with a stricter tone.  
"As if anyone would believe me if I told 'em about all this. Seriously, they'd just kick me to the nearest mental hospital!" Alyssa noted. Cliffjumper snickered a bit, even though he was not sure about what a mental hospital is.  
"Are you HONESTLY sure about this? And not just you, human, but you too, Optimus? Letting a human to become part of our team? I see it merely as a safety risk," Ratchet broke into the discussion.  
"Come on, can't you put some trust into me? I'll never, ever, ever tell anyone about this, I swear it!" Alyssa said with a more begging voice.  
"Optimus, what are you going to decide? At least I wouldn't mind if we got to know some local people," Bulkhead said.

Once again Optimus looked at the team. Then he looked at the human family, especially to Alyssa. The girl looked like she was going to blow up from the waiting and excitement. With one last consideration, Optimus said his decision, "Alyssa, I've decided to let you join our team."  
"Really?!" Alyssa gasped.  
"Really," Optimus said. "Welcome to Team Prime."

Ratchet scoffed and returned to his work.  
"You don't need to mind Ratchet's unfriendliness. He's just like that," Arcee said.  
"Though it seems he doesn't like humans anyway," Cliffjumper said.  
"So, wanna tell me who you are and where have you come from?" Alyssa asked more eagerly than ever.  
"We are autonomous robot organisms from planet Cybertron. We Cybertronians have split into two factions: the Autobots, and the Decepticons," Optimus told. "I'm Optimus Prime, the leader of this team."  
"My name is Arcee," Arcee presented herself.  
"My name is Bulkhead. I used to be one of the Wreckers, a subgroup of the Autobot faction," Bulkhead told.  
"I'm Cliffjumper. And Arcee is my partner, isn't that right?" said Cliffjumper, with Arcee nodding. "And Bumblebee already presented himself. And that grumpy medic over there is Ratchet, as you already noticed."  
"Yeah, I noticed it," Alyssa said, smiling.  
"Hey, does ANYONE know what day and time it is?" Alyssa's father interrupted.  
"My phone's dead, I suppose," Alyssa told trying to get some light on the screen of her phone. "Maybe even broken if that Stargeek managed to hit it."

Arcee chuckled at the nickname Alyssa had just given to Starscream.  
"What?" Alyssa asked, not knowing what Arcee found so funny.  
"The nickname you just gave Starscream is a good one," Arcee explained.  
"That was his name? Well, I can keep calling him Stargeek anyways, if it's so funny," Alyssa said and grinned.  
"Today is Sunday, as of your human calendar. And it's 9.30 local time," Ratchet interrupted.  
"Local time? Are we even in the same time zone where we got kidnapped?" Alyssa's mother asked.  
"Can ya show the map, Ratchet? Please?" Alyssa asked. "'Cause we need to get back to our summer cottage and get our stuff before getting back home."

Ratchet scoffed once again, but decided to not act difficult. At least this time things would go with less annoyance if he just complied. He opened up the map.  
"This is the time zone we're in now," he told and pointed out the right time zone.  
"Uh-oh… So if it's 9.30 here, then at home it is…" Alyssa started counting. "It's already 18.30 at home! Oh no! MY HOMEWORK! I got a freaking lot of homework for tomorrow and I haven't done any of them!" The young girl got freaked out on the realization of this horrible truth. "We need to get home ASAP, or I'll get some marks for neglecting homework!"  
"Whoa. She sure got freaked out quickly," Bulkhead noted quite quietly.  
"Bah, humans," Ratchet muttered and then raised his voice. "Okay then, kid, just show the time zone and let's start pinpointing the place where you guys need to be GroundBridged."  
"Oh… yeah… sure… Though…" Alyssa said, looking up to the screen while trying to keep her panic in control. "It would help a little bit if I could see the map from any place higher."  
"Oh, honestly!" Ratchet gushed.  
"Hey, I ain't an 8 meters tall robot from outer space. I'm just an under 2 meters tall human kid from this planet. Can ya gimme at least some mercy on this one?" Alyssa ranted and faced Ratchet's reproaching face. The medic stole a look at the rest of the team; while others were too surprised about the young girl's suddenly changing attitudes, Optimus was frowning at the slightly disrespectful tone. But before the Prime could say anything about it, Alyssa noted, "You were the one to tell me to show the time zone. Kinda hard to show it from here, y'see, dude."  
"Oh please, Optimus, are you seriously going to let this human talk to ME, the medic, like that?" Ratchet sighed.  
"I was already going to note about that. Alyssa, you really shouldn't," Optimus said.  
"Okay, okay, I already got the message! I'll at least TRY to not to be that disrespectful, okay? But, _with all due respect_ , it doesn't really help at showing the time zone, right?" Alyssa said, keeping her tone in control.  
"Well her attitude sure changes in astroseconds," Cliffjumper whispered to Arcee, grinning.  
"And I don't think it's a very good thing. I wonder how her studies are going along with that," Arcee muttered, worried. At first, Alyssa has seemed like a nice person, but quick changes in her attitude had already started to worry her. Maybe it was not a good idea to take this girl to the team after all.  
"Aww, come on, seeing that shortie verbally clashing with _Ratchet_ is hilarious! Who could've guessed one would have so much guts?" Cliffjumper snickered.

Arcee did not answer. Though she knew that Cliffjumper, who probably had the biggest sense of humor in the team, tended to sometimes clash with the always serious Ratchet. But a _human_ doing it, too? Arcee felt worried for how the situation would end.

This worried Bumblebee too. And he wanted to end the tensing situation.  
(I can lift you up, Alyssa,) he told.  
"That would be very nice of you, Bumblebee!" Alyssa said, her bright smile returning. Bumblebee kneeled down to let the small human climb on his hand. But when the Autobot scout lifted his hand, Alyssa did not manage to stay on her feet.  
(Are you all right?) Bumblebee asked.  
"Yeah, I'm fine. Even though I have a fear of heights…" Alyssa said. Ratchet decided to silence his scoffing this time. He felt that he would be scoffing a lot from this point on because of Alyssa, and that probably would not do any good for his vocabulator.

It did not take long before Alyssa was already showing the right time zone.  
"Well, the time zone is settled. But some more detailed location would be good", Ratchet noted. "The GroundBridge can't localize your memories and former whereabouts."  
"I know. Get to the north with this map," Alyssa told.  
"Can't you get any more detailed with that?" Ratchet asked. Even the northern part of the map was huge.  
"Northern part on the right of that ocean", Alyssa clarified, annoyed. Ratchet limited the map to show northern Europe and Asia.  
"Okay, now, it's this country," Alyssa said, pointing at Finland.  
"That small country? With such a big neighbor?" Cliffjumper asked.  
"Finland and Russia have been in war way before I was born, yes, but now we have peace," Alyssa told.  
"So? A more precise location?" Ratchet interrupted.  
"Yeah, sure," Alyssa said, a bit annoyed by the medic's interruption, and started to point out the exact location as the map got more detailed.

Suddenly a familiar ringtone started playing. Actually two of them.  
"What's going on?" Bulkhead asked, bewildered.  
"My phone! So, it was just turned off! Man, I hate it when it does this!" Alyssa said and took her phone out of her pocket. The phone was exploding with notes about text messages and phone calls. And one of the calls was still ongoing.  
"I seriously have some adamant friends. My phone's gonna blow up with all this stuff!" the girl noted and turned to look at Optimus. "Can I answer to this call? I think my friend has been trying to call me for hours."

Optimus nodded. He could understand that Alyssa's human friends had worried about Alyssa a lot.  
"Yeah, Selena? What's up?" Alyssa answered.  
"Alyssa! Finally you answered! Why didn't you answer before?" Selena asked.  
"Sorry, my phone was, uh, turned off. And it took a year to turn it on, as usual," Alyssa said, exaggerating the time her phone _always_ took to turn on.  
"Oh, I see. Do you know about that tomorrow's biology test?" Selena asked.

Alyssa turned pale.  
"W-what biology test?" she asked.  
"You didn't get the text message from Matti? He sent it to all of us," Selena told.  
"How many pages do we have to read?" Alyssa asked.  
"47," was Selena's answer.

Alyssa let out a shout of horror and collapsed to her knees.  
"Alyssa? You okay there?" Selena asked.  
"I'm screwed by tomorrow, so yeah, I'm okay," Alyssa answered. "A migraine of the whole weekend doesn't save my hide from getting into that test tomorrow. Oh damn, I haven't even done my homework yet and I have to study too! Oh man, I can't take this crap anymore…"

Alyssa tried to keep herself from sobbing. She had done her best in her studies, but her all-the-time-lowering biology grades hindered her grade point average. She hated her biology teacher and he hated her. The pressure seemed to inflate every week. And now it seemed to be too much.  
"Maybe you should skip tomorrow's classes? I think Matti would understand…" Selena began optimistically, but Alyssa interrupted, "You know as well as I do that he _won't._ And I can't skip tomorrow! I just can't!"  
"Well… Why don't you try to study and then ask me and Marie about the stuff before the test?" Selena suggested.  
"Yeah, sure. I'll try to study a bit. Did you have something else to be told?" Alyssa asked.  
"Nope. See ya tomorrow, then!" Selena said.  
"Yeah, see ya," Alyssa said and hung up. She took a few deep breaths, trying to calm her growing anger. But seeing her phone showing it is Sunday and the time is 18.39, she could not encase her fury.  
"THAT SONOFABITCH!" she screamed out loud. Her parents and the Autobots winced at the sudden explosion.  
"Alyssa!" Alyssa's mother scolded Alyssa for her bad language.  
"We had biology as the last lesson of Friday and that bastard didn't bother to tell about the test! No, he had to increase the phone bill, or maybe just ruin the weekend of the students! What is his problem?!" Alyssa raged, now panting. She hardly ever yelled this much about anything.

But whenever she did, it was almost certainly due to her biology teacher, Matti, nowadays. Alyssa had no idea why he hated her (no one had), but she countered his hate with her own. They had been sworn enemies for a year now.  
"So who is this person who angered you _that_ much? If I may ask?" Cliffjumper asked.  
"My biology teacher," Alyssa answered.  
"Do you have some kind of disagreement with each other?" Optimus asked.  
" _Disagreement_? Puh-lease, he's my sworn enemy by now!" Alyssa answered.  
"If you're enemies, why do you attend his lessons?" Ratchet asked.  
"'Cause he's the only biology teacher in my school and nobody cares. Everyone has to attend his lessons if they want to get diploma in this life and in that one school," Alyssa answered. "And if one wants to get a decent job or at least to postgraduate studies, one needs diploma from comprehensive school."  
"So what is the human school system like?" Ratchet asked, partly interested in that subject. "Where do your scientists study?"  
"It depends on the country. In Finland, everyone attends comprehensive school. Some industries need studies at vocational school, some need studies at high school. After that one can advance to university or polytechnic. I suppose scientists go to high school and then to university," Alyssa tried to describe clearly and shrugged then. "I dunno, since I'm not into science that much. I prefer doing stuff with computers."  
"Like what?" Ratchet asked.  
"Programming, mainly. Some other stuff, too," Alyssa told.  
"You sure have a big education system. We only have primary programming and then we either leave study in an academy or just go and get a job. I did the latter," told Bulkhead.  
"Well that's easy! We just have years and years of studying; and most of the stuff either has no useful value in life or isn't what most of people need later in their life! Like history, for example: how does it help you solve a difficult equation?" Alyssa said, jealous of the seemingly easier education system the Cybertronians had.  
"History is important. When we know the mistakes our ancestors made, we can avoid repeating those mistakes," Optimus said.

Alyssa had heard this sentence before but when a 9 meters tall robot from outer space said that, she suddenly did not know what to say. It took nearly a minute before she found her usual note on situations like this one, "You have your opinion, and I have mine."

Optimus merely nodded, not entirely happy with Alyssa's attitude. But, in the end, it was probably the best he would get in this matter. Alyssa did not show it, but she was relieved that Optimus did not keep up the talk about history being important. She had already, as any casual slang-using student in her school would say in Finnish, "gotten served" by Optimus Prime.  
"Well, I don't know about your timetables, as if you had anything set anymore with all this, but should you not be going by now?" asked Ratchet.  
"He is right," Alyssa's mother noted.  
"Yes, if Alyssa has to do homework and study, we really need to get going," Alyssa's father said.  
(Hey, can Alyssa come here tomorrow, then?) Bumblebee asked.  
"Tomorrow?" Ratchet asked.  
(Why not? She could teach us about this planet,) Bumblebee noted.  
"I think it would be useful," Arcee noted.  
"To be honest, I know some people can be jackasses, but if you're screwing up on the road so badly that many drivers show inappropriate hand signs often, you need to get some driving and traffic rule lessons!" Alyssa quipped.  
"Alyssa, are you sure you should come here tomorrow?" Alyssa's mother asked.  
"Why not?" Alyssa asked.  
"Studying, perhaps?"  
"The test is tomorrow. Matti never lets anyone, let alone ME, to get a retry on ANY test. Studying after the test will be useless."  
"Well… I suppose it's fine then…" teenagers were difficult, and last year had exhausted Alyssa's parents. They did not even bother to try anymore with their headstrong, do-it-yourself daughter.

Ratchet and Alyssa both looked at Optimus, who looked at Alyssa and asked, "What time at your time zone we should GroundBridge you here tomorrow?"  
"Hmm… Probably at 15.15. I think I've managed to do my homework and eaten something by then," Alyssa answered.  
"And from where? I remember you implying you live in another place than where you need to GroundBridged now," Ratchet noted.  
"Oh, yeah…" Alyssa said, pondering; it was difficult enough to show a house from the middle of nowhere, but a place with houses next to each other? Pretty extreme. "Can ya track human mobile phones from here?"  
"Your primitive technology? If that's the best possible way to get the coordinates, then I'll see if I can make our scanners able to track down something as primitive as that," Ratchet scoffed.

He turned to the computer and did something on it; Alyssa did not understand the symbols on the screen; she thought they were some sort of code lines or just simply the language of the Cybertronians. After all, it was very unlikely that they would NOT have a language of their own.  
"Yes, if I get to scan your… device, I can track it down from here later," Ratchet told.  
"Good," Optimus said. Alyssa got her phone out of her pocket. The phone was about to die which was nothing new; it had liked to go haywire and be uncooperative for a long time already. Ratchet scanned it quickly and checked that the tracking system was working.  
"You're clear. Shall I open the GroundBridge now so that they'll get back home during this solar cycle?" Ratchet said.  
"Go on," Optimus said. Bumblebee took Alyssa down from the computer panel and let the girl join her parents as the GroundBridge opened up, bigger than the humans had thought it to be. Optimus turned to talk to the humans, "I apologize for you being involved into this."  
"I think you shouldn't apologize that. It's those, who kidnapped us, who should apologize," Alyssa's mother said.  
"Yeah, I don't want to get involved with this anymore. No talk about you from us, and you stay away from our life… as much as you can when one of us actually has decided to spend time with you," Alyssa's father noted, glancing at Alyssa. The girl glared at him shortly.  
"We will leave you be. But Alyssa, we shall see you tomorrow, then," Optimus said.  
"Can't wait for it!" Alyssa noted, smiling joyously. "See you then!"

The humans disappeared into the GroundBridge.  
"You know, that Alyssa sure has some guts, don't you think?" Cliffjumper said as the GroundBridge closed.  
"I think it's not that good," Ratchet murmured under his breath.  
"Bwaha! It's a shame she's so tiny. If she was a Cybertronian like us, she could be one frag of a Wrecker!" Bulkhead noted.  
"Or not," Arcee said grimly. "Who knows? She isn't like us. She can't fight the 'Cons. She can only help us conceal ourselves on this planet."  
"That is true, but we must not dismiss her willing to help us, even though this isn't her war," Optimus said.  
"On the human scales she's still a youngling!" Ratchet noted.  
(I was hardly anything more than a youngling when I joined the war. I think we shouldn't underestimate her, just like you didn't underestimate me back then!) Bumblebee noted.  
"Well, we'll see how the things turn out," Arcee said. "We'll see…"

 **/Author's note: Transformers Prime (c) Hasbro, the humans of this story (c) Me/**


	4. Chapter 4: Alyssa's rule number 2

"So how does one tell different forest types apart from each other?" Alyssa asked.

"From vegetation, at least," Lin reminisced.  
"Oh crap," Alyssa murmured and restrained the urge to ask Marie explain it again. She had now ultimately accepted that she was doomed to fail. Big time. _I won't pass this test…_ she knew.

The door of biology class opened and the students slogged in, some of them nearly as sure as Alyssa that they would fail the test. Alyssa put her phone to the box among the phones of the other students and sat down, looking at the questions. She knew immediately that she had no idea about the answers.

She stole a brief look to her deeply-hated teacher and decided to not give him the pleasure of seeing her give up. Therefore, she started to dig into her memory and write down whatever nearly-related stuff she found there. She knew that with it she could say that she had tried. She did not believe in getting any points from whatever correct-ish bits of knowledge she could get on the paper, though.

The phone box sat on the table. At some point some jitter could be heard from it. _Someone has forgotten to mute their cell phone_ , Alyssa thought. Matti went to mute the phone, but the phone silenced itself first. The teacher still put his hand to the box, with Alyssa observing the situation secretly. She had become _very_ paranoid of these situations…

A horrible noise sounded out from one of the phones! The students let out surprised, even shocked, shouts, but Alyssa did not do so. She had been waiting for this. And now she knew for sure that the little secret program she had made and installed on her phone worked against her greatest human enemy. Her phone was now secured from those who wish to tamper with it. At least the human tamperers; she had no idea if the Decepticons, who were obviously more advanced in technology, could break her program. It was very possible.

Suddenly the failed test did not matter. Alyssa wrote the last sentence, got up and returned the test, then took her phone, making sure Matti saw that the phone which had been the source of the noise was hers. Her dark satisfaction did not know any limits.  
"Well, I'm finished. May I go to the toilet now?" she asked, feeling strong urge to get to her regular forum and tell about her success to her friends on the net.  
"Go to the principal's office with your phone, NOW!" Matti hissed.  
"Excuse me?" Alyssa asked.  
"You AND your phone, to the principal's office", Matti repeated angrily.  
"Why? What's wrong with mah phone? It just has a program which prevents anyone unauthorized to use my phone from tampering with it. Ya tried to tamper and it fought back. It's that simple," Alyssa said.

Matti was infuriated. Everyone seemed to be concentrated on the test, but he knew better than that; everyone in the classroom was listening to the conversation. Everyone felt the itch to report about it to the other students. The near-to-literal war between Matti and Alyssa was the most famous and most entertaining thing among the students. Everyone knew about it, and whenever something happened, it did not take very long before that something had spread into the knowledge of every student. Hearing possible fresh news on this case as soon as possible was the only reason for some students to come to school at all, as a matter of fact. Many of those said that this was better entertainment than what comes on television with the same label.

What Matti or just anyone who had not been in touch with the reporters did not know was that every single fight and wrong had been recorded and saved to the digital and rather restricted school magazine. Anyone who knew the web address could access it anytime and anywhere. It was a thing Alyssa's class, 8E, was very proud of.

"Get. To. Your. Seat. Now," Matti hissed, outraged. That nasty spawn of a devil had overwhelmed him! The students were silent, expressionless and writing, but he could almost hear the suppressed laughter of the whole class. He looked at Alyssa, but instead of a smug smile, he only saw a blank face of an innocent girl. It was like nothing had happened. That Alyssa had done nothing wrong. And it made Matti feel even more outraged. And Alyssa – and everyone else in the classroom – knew it.

Time passed and more students returned their tests. They exchanged glances and gestures, indicating how well or poorly their tests had gone. No one seemed to even mention the fight they had witnessed. Matti was just satisfied for that, thinking that they had let it drop, but in truth the pupils were going to get reports done and published as soon as the lesson would end.

Everyone left the class about a quarter later. When they had reached the school yard, everyone was messaging, gossiping or writing about the fight at the class. Alyssa talked about the program she had coded by herself. The mood of everyone was cheerful.

"So what are ya gonna do after school? We'll have some gossiping on this at the community centre after school," Selena asked Alyssa.  
"I have some stuff to be done today, so I need to get back home after school," Alyssa answered, trying to be truthful.  
"Okay," Selena said.  
"What kind of stuff?" Marie asked. Alyssa, not being able to tell the truth, decided to try and make some half-honest story, "A secret project, y'see. Can't tell ya 'bout it."  
"Okay, I see," Marie said, swallowing the story so well that it hurt Alyssa.

Alyssa was called to the principal's office during the next lesson. Matti had blabbed to the principal after all. Alyssa got a warning again, but the principal was lazy and also tired of the fight already, and could not have bothered to waste his time on giving Alyssa some detention, since he had learned last year that it did no effect on anyone in _any_ matter. The fight went on, no matter what he did. And it would take _way_ too much effort to kick Matti out and replace him with someone else. And nearly everyone would complain about it anyway. The principal sighed. When the next year would end, he could finally retire. And there would be no return for him then, he knew it. But he was already fed up of this school and its students and teachers alike. Had he not had a decent salary, he would have resigned a long time ago already.

Alyssa got back to her lesson and added a note about her warning to the newspaper. The teacher did not notice it. She had learned to conceal her phone very well, and so had many others. Actually, Alyssa had earned a few tenners by teaching this concealment system to other students. She was still saving them for whatever urgent there could ever be.

The last lesson felt like it was never going to end. Alyssa felt excitement, since getting to see the Autobots again was very close now. She would make haste with her homework and snack and then wait for the GroundBridge to open up.

"Well then, do exercises 90, 93 and 94 as homework. See you tomorrow," the teacher, Alina, told everyone. Alyssa marked the exercises and threw the books into her bag. She said quick goodbyes to her friends and left. She usually went to school by bike, since she could normally ride it relatively fast. But now she was excited, which is why she rode so fast that no one managed to make out who had just gone by like a typhoon.  
"I'm home!" Alyssa yelled and closed the door.  
"You seemed to be fast," her mother noted.  
"Ahaha, yeah… I'm just so excited to see the Autobots again!" Alyssa said.  
"Oh dear," her mother sighed. She knew the times when Alyssa was _almost_ as excited as she was now. And during those times the girl managed to mess up every place she was in.

Nearly an hour later the GroundBridge opened and with a joyous yell Alyssa rose up and left to the Autobot base. And her mother was surprised to see that no place had been messed up. Maybe this time Alyssa was so excited that she could not even mess any place up?

Ratchet shut down the GroundBridge, sighing with nearly no sound. Alyssa's loud greeting could not be left unnoticed by anyone inside the base.  
"Hello, little one! Glad to see you again!" Cliffjumper greeted.  
"Hi, Cliffjumper. So, you are here, Bulkhead is here, Ratchet is here. Are the rest of you guys kicking some Decepticons' butts?" Alyssa asked.  
"Actually not," Ratchet scoffed. "They are looking for Energon."  
"Oh, I see!" Alyssa said, not even a bit less interested. "What's Energon, by the way?"

Bulkhead laughed. That question was odd to hear from anyone he usually talked with.  
"Energon is our fuel," he told.  
"And also ammunition! Seriously, it explodes so easily!" Cliffjumper noted. "It feels so mighty to blow some 'Cons into an Energon mine!"  
"Blowing up those mines is wasting them. Cliffjumper, I have told you not to do so," Ratchet said, aggravated.  
"It ain't like the 'Cons are letting us get some Energon from their mines," Cliffjumper noted.  
"It still doesn't mean that you can just blow it up! The Earth's Energon recourses are limited!" Ratchet snarled.  
"And most of them are in the 'Cons' hands," Bulkhead muttered under his breath.  
"Why is that?" Alyssa asked, focusing now on the Wrecker and letting Ratchet argue with Cliffjumper.  
"We're outnumbered very badly. You've already seen our team. There're no more Autobots on Earth. But there're tons of 'Cons on their warship," Bulkhead explained.  
"Are you the last Autobots left?" Alyssa asked, very worried.  
"Not in the universe, for sure. Everyone left to their own ways after Cybertron went dark. But within the nearest solar systems we are the last Autobots left indeed," Bulkhead answered.  
"Oh man, that sucks! Can't ya call for someone?" Alyssa asked.  
"As if anyone else than the Decepticons answered!" Ratchet snarled at Alyssa, overhearing the conversation over his own. "We're here, no one else is coming. Live with it!"

With those words he turned his back to his fellows and continued his work on the base computer.  
"I was just asking…" Alyssa said quietly. How was she supposed to know that all? She had known about the existence of the Cybertronians just for a few days and gotten some good information on them only yesterday.

Cliffjumper knelt near Alyssa.  
"Hey kid, don't mind Ratchet. He's too old for chatting," he murmured, trying to comfort Alyssa.  
"I can hear you!" Ratchet noted loudly.  
"I understand that," Alyssa said. "But I really wanna know more! What was Cybertron like before? And how long that war of yours is? C'mon, tell me!"  
"Weren't you supposed to teach us?" Bulkhead asked.  
"I think we can learn from each other. After all, a human sure doesn't come across some aliens and their culture every day, so why not take a chance to learn something from them?" Alyssa said.  
"That's a good point!" Cliffjumper said. "So, about Cybertron…"

 **/Author's note: Transformers Prime (c) Hasbro, the humans of this story (c) Me/**


	5. Chapter 5: Regrets

"What about that giant statue that holds some sort of staff or something in its hand?" asked Cliffjumper.  
"You mean the Statue of Liberty? As of what I remember from my history lessons, it was a gift from the French people to the American people," Alyssa told.  
"Why?" Arcee asked.  
"I don't remember that. Probably some sort of expression of friendship or something, I guess," Alyssa noted.  
"Your memory circuits seem to be broken. Perhaps you should let your medic check them out," Ratchet noted.  
"Excuse me?" Alyssa asked. "Pardon, but humans don't have circuits. We're organic, y'know. Our memory capacity ain't as big as yours. I mean c'mon, you guys are robots! You have your circuits, we humans have our brains. We have our limits!"  
"Of course," Ratchet scoffed under his breath. Alyssa was going to open her mouth to pay back his crappy attitude towards her kind, but Bumblebee motioned her not to do that. Thus, Alyssa just glared at the Autobot medic shortly and turned back to answer the questions of the other Autobots.

It had been two days since Alyssa first met the Autobots. When Ratchet was not included, every one of them was interested to know something about humans, their culture, history or the Earth. And Alyssa had taught them about the traffic rules, too. She had not realized before that the Autobots needed no more than one time to learn the rules. But, like she had just noted to Ratchet, the Cybertronians had their memory circuits but the humans had their limited brains.

Suddenly Alyssa's phone rang. Alyssa looked up to Optimus for a permission to answer and the Autobot leader nodded.  
"What is it, Lin?" Alyssa answered the phone.  
"Where are you? You ain't at home," Lin asked.  
"Euh… I actually can't tell. Ya know that secret project I've told about… I'm doing it in seclusion," Alyssa lied.  
"Well, I just thought that it would be nice to hang around the town with ya," Lin said, sounding clearly disappointed. It hurt Alyssa. When she had decided to join the Autobots, she had not thought about her friends and what kind of a difference it would make to her time with them. But now she realized it.  
"Yeah… er… Can we hang around the town tomorrow?" Alyssa suggested.  
"No, I have gymnastic training tomorrow and Friday. What about the weekend? Are you going to your family's summer cottage?" Lin asked.  
"I suppose so," Alyssa said.  
"I see. See ya tomorrow at school, then," Lin hung up.

Alyssa put her phone away, pondering her situation. She could use the false project to cover her alliance with the Autobots for some time, but it could not last for very long without her friends starting to get suspicions. In addition, now she noticed how much she had neglected her usual time with friends in favor of spending time with the Autobot team. And she was starting to have regrets about her choice.  
"Is everything ok?" Optimus Prime asked.  
"Oh… Well, I suppose. For the time being, at least," Alyssa answered.  
"Are your friends having some suspicions on your behavior?" Optimus asked, worried.  
"Not yet. I have a good cover story. It won't hold up forever, though," Alyssa said.  
"But you can make another one if the recent one falls apart, right?" Cliffjumper noted.  
"I hope so," Alyssa said.  
"If you're starting to feel regrets about joining our war, you can always leave. You have the possibility to choose," Ratchet noted.  
"What? No way! I'm not giving up!" Alyssa retorted, but she knew that Ratchet had just hit the nail on the head. Had the medic noticed her having some regrets?

Ratchet looked at the human girl with a disguised expression which showed he knew better than that. Nobody else noticed the hidden expression. But Alyssa felt herself tense, as if the one she looked at was not a grumpy medic of a race from outer space, but just Matti. Was she going to get another nemesis?

She hoped not, because in this case the nemesis could crush her under his feet without noticing it. She _had to_ make a correction before it was too late. She believed that she could make the medic a friend of hers. It would just require time.

(So what do you think about your history compared to ours?) Bumblebee asked.  
"Now that you ask… I don't think it matters that much. You have this one long war, we've had and will have numerous wars. Things have changed during the centuries," Alyssa noted.

Ratchet looked at Alyssa, remaining silent. It was natural for a young species like humans to talk about centuries, just like the way older Cybertronians talked about millennia. But the human girl had a good point, the medic noted; things have changed during the centuries indeed.  
"Do you think your kind has learned from their mistakes?" Optimus asked.  
"Some people have learned, some haven't. We've had wars for very long and we still have them," Alyssa noted. "The last real big war in Europe was in the last century, before I was born. That was the World War 2. But I'm sick of hearing about wars in Middle East. It sucks."  
"Is there anything your people could do about them?" Arcee asked.  
"I suppose they're trying, but I'd say that if they _could_ do something, they would've done it already," Alyssa mused, not showing how frustrated she was about the situation of the world.  
"Well if we'd be let to do some negotiations, they'd stop immediately. Especially if we wrecked some of their tanks or something," Bulkhead said, punching his fists together.  
"We do not engage in human matters to hurt them," Optimus reminded.  
"We wouldn't hurt them. Just make some empty vehicles out of commission," Bulkhead noted.  
"It would scare them for sure, but I fear the worst of them would just go hiding and act from there," Alyssa said.  
"Our technology is so advanced that we could easily track them. Don't forget that, human," Ratchet noted.  
"Oh, yeah, sure," Alyssa said, actually surprised that Ratchet had decided to join the conversation even for a little bit. But Ratchet only felt disappointed and also irritated that the girl had not taken the Cybertronian technology into account. _Things could be very different among the human race if they were more advanced on any matter_ , was pretty much what Ratchet had started to think during these previous days of listening to Alyssa tell the other Autobots what they wanted to or needed to know.

And while he did not really like Alyssa and could not honestly have cared any less about the human history, Optimus had asked him to pay attention to what the girl told. _"The information we see as worthless may be very important in the future,"_ Optimus had said to him.

Ratchet could not fathom how in the name of the AllSpark the history of the Statue of Liberty could be important in the future, but he decided to follow the advice of his old friend and paid as much attention as he deemed adequate. Knowing traffic rules might help them to blend in the human traffic and attract less attention but otherwise he regretted not protesting Alyssa's presence at the base more. He could only work and subconsciously track the amount of useless information accumulate inside his processor.

The next day Alyssa tried to hang out with her human friends, only to see that they had expected her to stay "working on her secret project in her secret location" and had arranged something else to do. Alyssa went back home all alone, did her homework and then called Ratchet, "Hey Ratchet, do ya have time to open a GroundBridge for me?"  
"Weren't you supposed to be with your human friends?" Ratchet snapped in response.  
"Yeah, I was, but it turned out that they all had something else to do, so I'm free to get there", Alyssa told. Ratchet sighed and opened the GroundBridge. Alyssa walked into it, rather depressed.  
"Thanks. May I help you in some way?" she asked when she had gotten into the Autobot base. This was her first attempt to find a way to get along with the grumpy medic.  
"Just stay out of the way. Our latest patrol got ambushed and I'm busy fixing up Bumblebee and Cliffjumper," Ratchet told.  
"Oh dear!" Alyssa gasped. Ratchet walked past her to the med room. Alyssa went after him and climbed up to a table with a sufficiently easy access. She looked at her alien comrades who were lying on the berths.  
"Oh dear," Alyssa repeated, horrified by the sight; Bumblebee and Cliffjumper were leaking Energon quite badly. They had truly gotten ambushed hard.

Alyssa noticed that she could get nearer by walking on the table. Therefore, she approached the medic and his patients and asked again, "Is there really no way for me to help?"

Ratchet looked at the girl, already readying a retort, but then he noticed that the girl had a sharp will to aid him on this matter. Optimus was secretly in the shadows, observing the situation. He had been on his way to check the wounded Autobots but had noticed Alyssa's sudden arrival and decided to see how the things would go when she was seemingly all alone with Ratchet.  
"If you can hold some tools and try to stifle some smaller leakages, I think you may help," Ratchet acceded and pointed a rather small leakage. "Hold this leakage off by pressing the wound with something for a moment so that I can fix some more severe damage first."  
"Roger that!" Alyssa noted, saluted and then rushed to temporarily stifle the leakage. Her hands were covered in Energon in the matter of seconds. It felt rather oily on her skin, but aside from that and its warmness she did not feel much about the Energon on her skin. More Energon leaked than the size of the wound would make one think. _This must be some sort of some sort of a main vein in the Cybertronian body_ , Alyssa mused.

The wound was small enough for Alyssa's hands to cover and she could observe the insides of Cliffjumper's arm; one of its armor plates had been torn off. Alyssa did not detect any other injuries, but she knew that when it came to a species alien to hers, she could not be sure. Ratchet came to check on the arm and noted, "Good, it seems that there are no other injuries here. Take this tool to the table on the right."

When Alyssa took her hands off the wound in order to take the tool, some Energon gushed on her.  
"Lucky that I dislike these clothes," Alyssa noted and took the tool from Ratchet and walked away with soaking-wet shoes and let the medic fix Cliffjumper's arm.

On her way she noticed Optimus in the corridor. The Autobot leader gave her an approving smile when he met her gaze and left back to the direction he had come from.  
"Hurry up! Don't go daydreaming! Bring me the cross-clamp, quickly!" Ratchet snapped, returning Alyssa to the present moment.  
"Got that!" Alyssa shouted and put the tool on the table, now looking for the right tool. She was lucky with using the logic; she managed to get the right tool on the first try.

Ratchet was surprised. He had not thought that Alyssa could be so much of a helper. He could not have even believed if he had not seen it by himself.

Alyssa was soaked by Energon but even after Bumblebee and Cliffjumper had been patched up, she did not complain. She felt truly proud of herself as she had helped in such a thing, even though what she had done was very little.  
"Ratchet, we're requesting GroundBridge," Arcee called on the comm. channel.  
"I'll get you that," Ratchet noted and left the med room to open up the GroundBridge. Alyssa sat down and tried to squeeze some of the Energon away from her clothes and hair. She thought that she had found a common ground with Ratchet now. She did not know if this had changed Ratchet's opinion on her at all, but she was certain that she was taking the right path on their terms.

However, Alyssa was still disappointed by not being able to hang out with her friends, but just like them, she had gotten something else to do. And this something else was truly something else! It was something even _better_! She greeted happily Arcee and Bulkhead who arrived at the room to see how their friends were doing.  
"Oh no, don't tell me Ratchet dropped you to a pool of Energon!" Bulkhead said, snorting.  
"Please! When would I do such a useless thing?" Ratchet scoffed. "There's no point in dropping organics on Energon even if we weren't low on it!"  
"I helped him out a little here," Alyssa told.  
"You did? Ratchet really let you help?" asked Arcee. She was surprised.  
"She insisted on helping me," Ratchet told. "And she was a little of help."  
"Well that amazing. I actually thought that I heard you talking to the shortie earlier," Cliffjumper mumbled.  
"How are you feeling, Cliff?" Arcee asked.  
"Just fine. I'll be kicking Cons' tailpipes quite soon," Cliffjumper told.  
"Not until I let you walk out of this room," Ratchet said. "You got into a very bad condition."

Bumblebee let out some beeps. He was happy to be patched up again. Optimus arrived at the room.  
"They were lucky and will recover in some solar cycles," Ratchet told him.  
"That's good," Optimus said. He was relieved to know this; they certainly could not afford losing any more Autobots than they already had, on Earth and everywhere.  
"Hey shortie, weren't you supposed to hang out somewhere else today? Not that it isn't nice to see you here, but I just thought you had arranged something else for this solar cycle," Cliffjumper asked Alyssa. He liked to call the human girl "shortie" and Alyssa did not mind it. It fitted her place among the Autobot team very well.  
"It turned out that everyone had something else to do, so I decided that I could get here and try to help or something," Alyssa told and looked at her now oddly colored clothes. "My parents certainly won't like the way my clothing has changed for being exposed to Energon, but I think this coloration is quite interesting!"  
"What about your skin? Is it reacting to Energon?" Ratchet asked.  
"It doesn't seem to react," Alyssa noted. Even her hands were fine even though they had been exposed to Energon a lot.  
"Well that's good!" Bulkhead said. "You can help Ratchet patch us up later!"

Ratchet tried to scan Alyssa with his medical scanner but did not succeed much. The scanner was not familiar with organic creatures like humans.  
"Well, let's hope there won't be any ill reactions later," Ratchet noted.  
"I can always explain any rash with some allergies," Alyssa noted.  
"You seem to have lots of stories to cover up different situations which may come from you being with us," Arcee noted.  
"I like to be prepared," Alyssa told. Ratchet seemed to be studying some readings on Bumblebee's state but in the truth, he was paying attention to the conversation. He had thought of Alyssa as an immature youngling who was in their way but now he had seen a glimpse of the more responsible side of the girl. It seemed that there was more in Alyssa than met the eye.

In the evening Alyssa returned home.  
"What on Earth has happened to your clothes?" her mother exclaimed.  
"They got exposed to Energon when I lent a hand to Ratchet on patching up injured Autobots," Alyssa told.  
"They're ruined now!" Alyssa's mother noted hysterically.  
"Calm down, Maria. Alyssa seems to be fine, so it's okay. She has other clothes than those," Alyssa's father tried to calm down his wife.  
"Yeah, and I really like this new coloration! It's, y'know, interesting!" Alyssa noted.  
"Sure, fine! Ruin your clothes the way you want to! I don't care!" her mother shouted and left the room, slamming the door.  
"Geez, no need to go apeshit!" Alyssa mumbled even though she knew her mother could not hear her.

Another wave of regret went through her. It was the third day in which she hanged out with the Autobots and her relationships to the close humans of her life were already crumbling. She suddenly feared that there would be a day when she would have to choose between her human friends and her Autobot comrades.

 **/Transformers Prime (c) Hasbro, the humans of this story (c) Me/**


	6. Chapter 6: Arranging

The weekend came, and Alyssa returned to her family's cottage, making sure that the comm. channel was available just in case that the Decepticons would return too. She used her spare time to make up something she could show to her friends as her "secret project" if they needed something to be seen. She also had to prepare herself for Monday and the first lesson Matti would have with her after the phone incident.

In this case, for Alyssa, preparing meant making sure that the clothes colored by Energon were dry and useable. She knew that they, in their eccentric coloration, could annoy Matti a lot.  
"Are you seriously going to put those on to school?" Alyssa's mother asked is disbelief.  
"I am. They look cool," Alyssa answered. "They are still in good condition after getting exposed to Energon, so why not?"  
"They look horrible."  
"Not in my opinion."

Alyssa's mother left, sighing in frustration. Ever since the girl became a teenager, she had been very difficult to handle and her mother had given up on getting her to do what she wanted her to do.

After preparations were complete, Alyssa took refuge under the canopy her family had bought last summer and worked on her computer and chatted with friends around the world online just like always, but now she was on Decepticon watch at the same time, making sure that she was able to contact the Autobot base if needed. Slowly the sun crossed the sky and Alyssa eventually ended work and got to her normal yoga and stretching. No Decepticons showed up.

Sunday came and passed by as if there had never been an encounter with Cybertronians and in the evening Alyssa and her parents returned to their home. Monday was to come soon.

At school:

"Whoa! Hey, where did you get those clothes?" Marie asked.  
"I dunno where mom bought them before summer. But their coloration did somehow get oddly messed last weekend. Now they look great," Alyssa told, knowing she told a small lie. But was it necessary to tell them completely truthfully exactly when the color had gotten messed up?  
"Matti won't approve," Lin noted.  
"Like I'd care!" Alyssa let out a short laughter. "That's why I put them on today!"  
"He'll send you to the principal's office for those clothes alone," Selena mused, grinning. She had to admit that the odd color seemed to fit Alyssa in some peculiar way.  
"Hah! I'd like to see him try that in this free country and school!" Alyssa said, chuckling about the idea of him and her clashing about it. She could not wait for it.

The bell rang.  
"Now we'll see what he thinks," Selena noted and chuckled. Alyssa grinned to her as they walked alongside the other students – who were more or less like zombies – and walked to the biology class.  
"How is that secret project of yours going?" Lin asked.  
"Fine so far. I got stuck at the weekend, so I have to put some extra effort to it, though. But how about we go to hang around the town tomorrow? Mom and dad are having some sort of stuff for today, but I'll have my free time tomorrow," Alyssa suggested.  
"Sure, why not," Lin noted.  
"I'll come too!" Marie said.  
"I will too, if I don't get engaged in something," Selena told.  
"Like what?" Marie asked. Selena shrugged.  
"Just something," she answered. "Who knows what before it comes?"  
"Great!" Alyssa said happily. She had to keep some of her normal life up outside of school so that no one could suspect anything. This would also give some durability for her cover story.

The students of 8E sat down at their desks. Matti gave a very long glance at innocent-looking Alyssa's clothing but decided to not say anything. He recognized a subtle provocation when he saw it being aimed at him. He turned his back to his class and turned to write to the chalkboard the exercises of the day. Alyssa grinned at Selena shortly and the red-haired girl gave her a thumbs-up.

The students started to do the exercises with quiet chatter and Matti started to roam among them. He stopped in front of Alyssa's desk and leaned to it, looking at the girl's work judgingly. Alyssa ignored him and tried to solve one exercise with Selena as if he had not been there.  
"Listen, I know a provocation when I see it," Matti hissed to Alyssa.  
"If ya say so," Alyssa muttered to him half-heartedly and turned to Selena. "Could it be like this?"  
"Possibly," Selena noted.  
"You think you are smart, but I don't think so," Matti kept hissing.

Alyssa turned her head from Selena and turned to stare into Matti's eyes.  
"I do not give a fuck about what you think. It's my life and you cannot affect it," she said evenly and slowly. "Did the message get through?"

Matti scoffed and returned to roam around the class. Alyssa refrained from showing some rude hand signs at his back and kept talking with Selena as if nothing had happened. A new report would come quite soon to the school magazine, every student in the class knew. Alyssa winked at Tony, a boy who really knew his way with using words in news reports and such. In fact, the boy wanted to become a journalist one day.

Nothing more remarkable happened during the lesson and once it was over, students started flock in the yard. Alyssa repeated Matti's words and her responses.  
"Now this will make a good report," Tony noted.  
"I'll wait for that," noted Raimund. "What about the layout? There seemed to be a glitch on the mobile side."  
"What happens there?" Alyssa asked; while a few of their class could do at least a bit coding, she held the most skill and thus most responsibility on the coding to work. They had been described as a "computer class" for the many students who had some sort of skills with computers.  
"It's being distorted, look," Raimund told and showed the school magazine on his phone.  
"Drat," muttered Kareema; she had been one who worked with the layout code of the magazine. "I thought it was working."  
"Me too," Alyssa noted. "I will check it once I get enough time with my computer. If I'm lucky, today evening already."  
"Great," Lin said. "You know, Matti is getting even more hostile every week. I wonder why."

 _Maybe he has some hidden and subliminal allergy to Autobots and I am triggering it now,_ Alyssa thought, but she refrained from snickering to her thought and instead said aloud, "Maybe he thinks he can break my will or something." She shook her head. "Not gonna happen."  
"Now that's the spirit!" said Svetlana.  
"Hey, what's up?" asked Daniela, a student from 8A.  
"Magazine," Marie explained shortly. "Some layout trouble on the mobile side, too."  
"Oh, what's the problem?" Daniela asked.  
"Layout is distorted," Lin told.  
"It's not supposed to be so?" Daniela asked.  
"No," Andrei told. He was one responsible for the layout.  
"When will it be fixed?" Daniela asked.  
"I'll check it as soon as just possible with all the rest, then we'll see about fixing it," Alyssa told.  
"I see. Good luck with that then!" Daniela said.  
"Thanks," Alyssa said.

The bell rang again; this was a short break.  
"I'll keep writing on the next break," Tony told.  
"Great! Matti may get even more pissed before the Christmas holiday, but at least we get some stuff to do!" Kareema said happily. She, just like others, liked doing their own magazine; it improved their skills in their own parts.

The students walked back to the school building and to their lessons.

 **/Transformers Prime (c) Hasbro, the humans of this story (c) Me/**


	7. Chapter 7: Codes

The school day ended and Alyssa returned back home, just like last week. She was quickly done with her homework and snack. She was, once again, waiting for the GroundBridge to open.

But this time she was going to bring her laptop with her and access the magazine on it via Autobot network – she had already learned that it had full internet access.

The portal which had become a familiar sight to her appeared. Alyssa disappeared into it in seconds.  
"Do you actually have some sort of anti-virus programming there?" Ratchet asked as he saw the laptop.  
"Yeah," Alyssa told. "And I'm careful when going around the internet anyways."  
"Good. I don't want to encounter any human viruses in this system," Ratchet said.  
"No need to worry about that. I'm not going around any unknown sites now," Alyssa told. "I just have a glitch to check."  
"A glitch? In what?" Cliffjumper asked as he lifted the girl up to the desk.  
"In a layout. Must be something in its programming," Alyssa told, turned her laptop back on and tried to access the magazine. The server did not let her in.  
"What do you mean, wrong password or username?! It's as right as always!" Alyssa shouted at the screen.  
"What's going on?" Arcee asked, hearing the girl.  
"There's something seriously wrong with this thing! It doesn't let me log in!" Alyssa told and hit the Enter button many times. It showed the same message. "Seriously! What's wrong with this crap?!"  
"Calm down before you blow a diode," Cliffjumper said.  
"Humans don't have diodes, but I have a feeling that I very well may blow something up. I'll try once more. Just once more," Alyssa said. She typed everything very carefully, making sure everything was written correctly. "Now fucking log in you piece of crap."

A new window opened up. It asked the secondary password. Alyssa typed that and proceeded. With much less speed than usually, Alyssa typed everything and after the fifth password had been typed, the magazine opened up.  
"Finally!" Alyssa sighed.  
"So you got through?" Ratchet asked coolly. "No need for a Cybertronian to break through?"  
"No. And even if I hadn't gotten through, I'd just call the second security person and ask what the hell is going on," Alyssa told.  
"Second security person?" Arcee asked.  
"He, along with me, is responsible for the security of this thing," Alyssa told.  
"What thing, exactly?" Cliffjumper asked.  
"Ah, it's just a, well, a class project. A kinda secret one, though. And unofficial. But we all participate in doing it," Alyssa told. She preferred to not tell the Cybertronians what the thing exactly was. She was sure that especially Ratchet and Optimus would disapprove greatly.  
"So what's exactly the problem with the layout?" Ratchet asked.  
"It's distorted," Alyssa told as she accessed the code and muttered some curses; the code was very badly messed up. "What on Earth has happened here?"  
"What's wrong?" Cliffjumper asked.  
"The code is completely messed up!" Alyssa told. "I need to call some people about this later."  
"Why?" Arcee asked.  
"Because I'm not the only one behind this code," Alyssa told and ran her hands through her hair, sighing in dismay. "This mess will take time to be fixed."

Ratchet moved to inspect the screen and the code shown on it.  
"I know, this is primitive when compared to that of yours," Alyssa noted self-consciously. "And that it's created and viewed on primitive devices by primitive people. You're on a primitive planet, so please live with it."  
"I did think that you could learn something about _our_ technology and programming and possibly tweak it to your primitive platforms," Ratchet noted bluntly.

Alyssa looked into the optics of the medic, surprised. Had Ratchet just implied what she thought he had?  
"Hearing you making many simple and avoidable mistakes when comparing your technology to ours does irritate me a lot," Ratchet told, now sounding more like himself again.  
"I can believe that," Alyssa noted simply.

An annoying "bling" coming from her computer startled everyone and Alyssa turned to look at the screen.

Kareema, under the nickname _Nightfall_ , had accessed the chat.  
 _What do you think?_ she asked.  
"What's that?" Ratchet asked.  
"The private chat. My classmate who has responsibility on this mess we mean to be a layout code also knows that something's wrong about it," Alyssa answered and answered under her own nickname, _Silverwind_ , _It's completely messed up._  
 _But how?_ asked _Nightfall_.  
 _I wish I knew. We need to talk with other coders tomorrow at school. I'm sure we can solve this thing together,_ Alyssa answered.  
 _And if we can't?_  
 _Then we need to remake it (from the desktop code?)_

Bling!

HoLyGRiFFiN

had come online. Alyssa smiled; the boy behind the nickname, Vilgot, was part of making both layout codes.  
 _Wazzup?_ he asked.  
 _Î_ , _Nightfall_ pointed at the conversation.

Ten seconds passed by and then came the reply, _Could we get the crew up now?  
You think they all can get online right now?_ Alyssa asked.  
 _I suppose_ , _HoLyGRiFFiN_ answered.

Alyssa muted her computer and soon she was completely swallowed into the conversation. Optimus, Bulkhead and Bumblebee returned from wherever they had been. Optimus looked at Ratchet in an interrogative manner and the medic shrugged.  
"Some trouble with some sort of a 'class project'. I lent her some Cybertronian coding knowledge," Ratchet told and snorted. "I doubt she can utilize it on such a primitive platform, but at least she may learn something about our technology. I'm fed up with her mistakes at it."

Optimus looked at Alyssa, who shortly nodded at the arrived Autobots before turning back to the screen. She frowned.  
"Is something wrong?" Optimus asked her.  
"There certainly is," Alyssa answered, shaking her head. "It seems that someone unauthorized has gotten past. Someone unauthorized AND highly immature."

 _Wordlord_ , also known as Tony in the world outside the digital environment, was posting horrendous spam and very stupid things on the chat.  
 _Wordlord, WTF?_ asked _Secura_ ; Selena had come there just to see if something was going on.  
 _Someone please call him to see wtf is going on_. It was _Nightfall_.  
 _Already on it!_ that was _ICON_ , the second security person, also known as Jasper.  
 _Trying to block this shht_ , Alyssa informed.

"Is it something we can help with?" Optimus asked.  
"I think we'll have it under control. First, we need to know what's going on at _Wordlord_ 's side of the screen and then we will deal with this interloper," Alyssa told.

 _It's his little brother messing with this, ICON_ informed.  
 _I FREAKIN KNEW IT! Wartone_ yelled.  
 _Kicking the brat out. ICON, can you please handle the password part?_ Alyssa told.  
 _I'm on it, ICON_ informed.

 _Wordlord_ disappeared and the chat calmed down.  
 _What a mess... Nightfall_ noted.  
 _IKR_ was the reply from _HoLyGRiFFiN_.

 _Wordlord_ came back online.  
 _Sorry 'bout this. I dunno how Elio got up here_ , he apologized.  
 _Beat 'im up for me_ , _Wartone_ asked.  
 _C'mon, dude. Elio's just a kid_ , _Secura_ noted.  
 _He's effing eight years old. He shoulda know some manners or somethin already! Wartone_ responded.

Alyssa looked at the conversation.  
"It's dealt with now," she told Optimus, who was still watching her.  
"Are you sure? What if that trespasser gets back?" Bulkhead asked.  
"If he does, a certain angry boy from my class will go and, well, _teach him some manners_ , let's put it that way. Since we already know who he is," Alyssa answered. "But now it's most unlikely since the real person behind the nickname is online."

 _So, Silverwind, you'll look into this then? Nigtfall_ asked.  
 _Yes, I'll look into it and we can talk about it tomorrow at school and fix it. Wartone, can you get your tablet with yourself there?_ Alyssa replied.  
 _Sure. See you there then! Wartone_ told.

Many _See you_ s and such were exchanged, and many people went offline. Alyssa was one of them; her laptop's battery's charge was slowly running out. She saved the code on her computer and turned the power off.  
(So what did you chat about?) Bumblebee asked.  
"Our class project's layout was acting odd. We needed to see about it and found out that the code is messed up," Alyssa told.  
(How?) Bumblebee asked.  
"Something just has gone wrong when making it, I hope. I did not look at it that much, but I think it's fixable. We still need to look into it," Alyssa told.  
"Why not now?" Arcee asked.  
"The battery's running out," Alyssa answered.  
"Why stop if your device runs out of power? You don't even think of borrowing our computers?" Ratchet asked, allowing some sarcasm get to his voice.  
"I don't think it's... well, proper," Alyssa noted. "They're your computers, not mine."

Ratchet blinked in astonishment. _The girl actually thought something like that?_

 _Oh well, she helped at patching up the wounded that one day_ , Ratchet recalled. He knew he had made his opinion about the girl by the first impression (which was not, to him, very good), but during the week he had come to the realization that Alyssa's personality was no simpler than that of anyone of Team Prime. And the human's mood and attitude did change quickly and often, making her difficult to read or predict.  
"I think it is fair enough that you can borrow a small workspace here for that project. If it's due soon, you better get into it," Ratchet told.  
"Oh! No, it's not due anytime, but it sure would be very great if I could see about it here," Alyssa said. She seemed awestruck about what Ratchet had suggested.  
"Then be my guest as long as you don't break or destroy anything," Ratchet noted and gestured towards a small spot which would be nicely made fit for a small human and which he could observe from his usual spot.

Alyssa's eyes lighted up and she moved to the place. She had observed how Ratchet and everyone else handled the console and could easily get the screen small enough for her.  
"Thanks, Ratchet," she thanked the medic, who just nodded.  
"Who would've guessed that our old Ratchet would actually let a human borrow an iota of the workspace here?" Cliffjumper noted.  
"That's her own work what she is doing, so why hinder it when I can help it?" Ratchet asked, turning to face the red Autobot. "And if she's working on something where I can see her, I know that she is not messing any places up elsewhere."  
"That's fair!" Cliffjumper snickered.

Alyssa smirked at Cliffjumper's tone but frowned at the code then, as she paid much more attention to it. There was something extremely wrong about it. She muttered something she did not know even herself.  
"What was that?" Ratchet asked.  
"It seems that I know what's wrong. And I have a certain _Wordlord_ to talk with tomorrow at school," Alyssa answered in disgust of what she saw. "I need to find my flash drive at home and get the original code here. This one's beyond salvage."  
"What is wrong with it?" Optimus asked as he returned back to the main room to talk with Ratchet about the low Energon supplies.  
"The brat who messed with us earlier at the chat has been up here before. _Wordlord_ is not a coder, but the log tells that he has been the last one to make any alterations to the code. I think it's partly accurate to say that this isn't a code anymore. The code is a minority against a... a grammatically unstable and very, very bad wannabe slash fanfiction about... ah, let that detail be. The code itself is at least partly gone, while the core parts are still there, hence the distortion," Alyssa told. "I hate that scamp who did this."  
"So how did this intruder get there?" Bulkhead asked.  
"He has somehow gotten _Wordlord_ 's password and used it to get there. Argh, better hope the new one stays hidden or we need to find another solution to maintain the security of this thing. I do not want any of this... this... I dunno what to call this... up here to this thing we're so proud of," Alyssa muttered. "This will be a painstaking thing to do. Lucky that I'm not alone on this one..."

 **/Transformers Prime (c) Hasbro, the humans of this story (c) Me/**


	8. Chapter 8: Computer Class

"What? You mean Elio most likely messed it up?" Tony asked.  
"Look at this thing when it's stripped of whatever code there was left anymore and tell me if he would write this sort of crap," Alyssa noted and showed the "code" she had found.

It was Tuesday now and the first break. The coders of class 8E had gathered to discuss about yesterday's topic. Tony made a face.  
"Well, he is into that... concept, as far as I've seen from my browser history from the time he's been using my computer. He's not into using the Incognito mode. And he is an annoying shipper. That's why I try to keep him out of my browser now; the fics he reads make all the online advertising I'm aimed at go nuts," he told. "It's horrible."  
"So is this... thing. How can any native language teacher stand him?" Alyssa asked. Tony shrugged.  
"So what's the case? Are there any backup copies of this version?" Kareema asked.  
"Gone," Alyssa told. "I've got the original codes, but we have to remake the current version."  
"Great. And anyone recall that we have an RE test on Friday?" Vilgot noted.  
"Oh yeah, that!" Minzhe said and bit his lip. "What can we do, then?"

Ratchet's words of wisdom on Cybertronian technology echoed in Alyssa's head. The incompatibility of it with human technology still made her sad. It would have been great if she could have made something even better with it.  
"I'm good at RE. I can work on it," Kareema noted.  
"You sure? The thing is quite complicated. And it may still include some of my dubious notes," Alyssa told.  
"I think that after knowing you for over a year I can notice your dubious notes and maybe even understand them! Or at least throw you with a message when I can't get what you're saing!" Kareema laughed.  
"Well that's good," Alyssa said, relieved.

The bell rang. Many students walked through the doors back inside for their next class. Some other pupils from their classes came to ask about the situation.  
"Things have to be redone," Alyssa told. "And someone has to kick Elio's butt for this. But lucky that it didn't get to the text part. That would be horrible."  
"Well we would've noticed that sooner in that case," Vilgot remarked.  
"Do we let Tony kick Elio or will I do that? You know, it would be a good test of my judo skills!" Minzhe noted.  
"Chill out, dude! No one kicks anyone, ok?" Kareema said.  
"Well fine," Minzhe muttered, disappointed.

Vilgot noticed a very familiar Asian girl talking to some odd people. He was not sure that he had seen them before. He felt some sort of an odd sense of disturbance, and called out, "WD, we'll all be late from maths soon!"

WD, Waradee by her first name, startled and rushed quickly to the group of her classmates, not saying a thing to the odd people after Vilgot had called her. They did not talk until they had gotten to the classroom and the teacher had begun the lesson.  
"Who were those guys you talked with?" Vilgot asked.  
"Nobodies," Waradee answered briefly.  
"WD, listen, you can always talk with all of us if there's some trouble with some other students. You know, if Alyssa openly stands up to someone like Matti, why couldn't we all stand up to some students?" Vilgot said.  
"It's not like that," Waradee muttered.  
"Then what is it like?" Vilgot asked. He was going to continue, but the teacher, Amanda, interrupted, "Is there something you don't understand about fractions, Vilgot?"  
"Actually... quite a lot of things," Vilgot replied honestly.  
"Then you'd do well if you listened to me during classes and made the notes, instead of talking with your friend," Amanda said.  
"Sure," Vilgot said and quickly copied whatever Amanda had already written on the blackboard as the mathematics teacher continued to explain about counting with fractions.  
"WD, just be sure to tell us if you need any help," Vilgot whispered to Waradee. The girl nodded.

Alyssa, who sat in the row in front of them, heard the conversation. She decided to pay more attention to those odd people she, too, had noticed on the way to the classroom. Even though some of her slowly developing paranoia was just a result of being on guard just in case the Decepticons showed their ugly faceplates near her, she could not help getting bad feelings about those people. It was not like Waradee at all to hang out with people like that.

Some jets flew over the school during the lesson. No one else than Alyssa paid attention to them, and no one else than she noticed their odd, purple coloration.

 _The 'Cons are near!_

Alyssa turned her head back to her exercises. She had seen nothing, she assured herself.

The Vehicon patrol just flew past. No Cybertronian landed and transformed nor shot any missiles or anything else to the school building. But Alyssa knew that she had to report to the Autobots after school.

About four hours later, after school had ended for the day, Alyssa sent a copy of the original mobile code to Kareema. She was going to get her snack, but then she saw them.

 _Them._

The odd guys Waradee had been with before mathematics lesson. They were there, just about twenty meters away from the window of her room. And something was seriously wrong.

Alyssa put her shoes back on and rushed outside to have a better look at what was going on. There was nothing to provide coverage for her, but she saw the guys abusing someone. That was enough for her; she called to the emergency number and told what was going on. While she wanted to go and help the poor person who was getting abused, she knew that she would only get a couple of cracked bones.  
"Hey, there's someone watching us!" shouted one of the three guys. Alyssa froze; she had been noticed.

Then she noticed something else: the victim of abuse was Waradee!

The apparent "big boss" – he was the biggest of them – put his foot on Waradee's side to prevent her from escaping as the two other guys came straight to Alyssa. She knew that she could run back to her house and lock the door nut she could not leave her friend alone to the mercy – or the lack of it – of the thugs.  
"You pitiful cowards! Attack a person smaller than you in a group! You pieces of crap!" she growled.

The two guys charged at her. She prepared herself for the beating. The policemen would be there in five to ten minutes. She would suffer what she had to; the explanation would be given to her parents after they came from work.

The beating she waited for never came, as a blue motorcycle and its black-suited driver came in between her and the thugs.  
"Leave her alone!" the driver yelled. Alyssa recognized the voice: it was Arcee!  
"Stay out of this!" the guy who had noticed Alyssa first growled.  
" _You_ don't mess with _me_!" Arcee threatened with a strong and loud voice. Some passerby further away heard it and turned to see what was going on.

A siren sounded. The policemen were arriving. The thugs ran, but Arcee and Alyssa went to their way. A police car stopped to just few meters' distance and a couple of policemen rushed out. Alyssa kept one thug from escaping while Arcee did her best to keep the other two occupied long enough.

When the thug Alyssa had kept put was arrested, Alyssa rushed to Waradee.  
"WD, did you get badly hurt?" she asked.  
"Yes," Waradee managed to answer. One policeman came to her side too. Alyssa turned and gave Arcee a thumbs-up. The hologram driver nodded to her and Arcee drove off.  
"Hey!" the other policeman shouted. He had been going to get a short report from the driver.  
"It seems that she doesn't want to get identified," Alyssa noted and turned back to Waradee.

Now an ambulance arrived. Waradee was taken to the hospital. Alyssa was told not to come with her, so she just stayed behind. She told the police what had happened and went back home. She knew that the time of GroundBridge's opening had gone past – most likely the reason why Arcee had been there in the neighborhood at that moment – so she had to call the base.

The portal re-opened as Alyssa hung up and she rushed through it. Ratchet, if anyone, would demand an explanation for this.

 **/Transformers Prime (c) Hasbro, the humans of this story (c) Me/**


	9. Chapter 9: Aftermath

"Where were you?" Ratchet demanded to know even before the GroundBridge had fully disappeared.  
"Sorry, I got some delay. Thanks for sending Arcee to see what's wrong," Alyssa replied.  
"Arcee was sent on a field patrol a few Earth hours ago due to Decepticon activity on your area," Ratchet informed.  
"Oh, you mean those Vehicon fliers? Yeah, I saw them too," Alyssa told.  
"What held you up?" Optimus asked. Alyssa turned to look at him and told the story, "I noticed some thugs very near my home. They were beating up a classmate of mine and I had to do what I could to help her."  
"And Arcee saved you?" Cliffjumper asked.  
"Yup. And she helped me to hold them for long enough so that they got arrested."  
"Arcee requesting GroundBridge, do you copy?" Arcee's voice sounded through the comm. channel. "Base, do you copy? Answer, for the All-"  
"I copy, Arcee," Ratchet said evenly.  
"Finally! Have I been off the reach or was something broken on your side?" Arcee noted.  
"Some Decepticons were scanning the area recently and we had to shut the systems down. It's taking some time to get them back online." Ratchet informed.  
"I see. But can I _now_ get there? I'm sick of these human males whistling to my hologram driver," Arcee said. Alyssa managed to stop herself from bursting into laughter, but she let out a very short laugh.  
"You want to explain what that means?" Ratchet asked. Arcee came as he spoke.  
"Ahemm... Actually, it's not really relevant," Alyssa said. _How could these Cybertronians understand a line "The hormones of those males must be real high by this time of the year." anyway?_

A week later:

"What do you mean you can't come?" Vilgot shouted. "'Lyssa, this is a chance of a lifetime!"  
"I'm sorry, Vilgot. My schedule is already full," Alyssa apologized. "Maybe Raimund can come with you? He has his way with cameras so that you can get it recorded for us all."  
"RAIMUND! GET HERE!" Vilgot yelled to the other side of the school yard. The German-born boy jogged there as teachers and some students stared at them and asked, "What?"  
"The IT fair on the weekend. Video cameras for recording. Can you come?" Vilgot told as shortly as possible.  
"I was just arranging who will go where at it," Raimund told. "Alyssa, can you go to the coding area there?"  
"She said that she can't–" Vilgot started.  
"I'll talk with my parents to see if I can get there," Alyssa promised. Vilgot was right; this was a chance of a lifetime. Not only that they could get information and additional experience on IT, when they worked together to get all the information possible to get and then shared it.  
"You have time until Thursday," Raimund informed. "Vilgot, you will go there anyways, right?"  
"Of course I will!" Vilgot noted. He was very passionate about this; it was not every decade when such a fair would be held in their town. They had to take this chance. It was now or never.

"So you mean that you will spend all of your non-school days of this week at this... fair?" Ratchet asked.  
"Yeah. If that just is fine with you guys," Alyssa told.  
"If it helps to keep your cover up, I won't mind," Ratchet noted. _It means that I'll have less time to be spend by putting up with this organic being_ , he mused. He had already feared the upcoming weekend she would spend with them.  
"What about your parents?" Optimus asked.  
"Still going to summer cottage without me. They want to have some private time together," Alyssa answered and smirked. She had some idea of what that "private time" contained.  
"You know, this 'fair' of yours sounds interesting. May I attend, too?" Cliffjumper said.  
"You most certainly may not! Cliffjumper, I do not know how many times I have said this to you, or will say to you, but we. Are. Robots. In. Disguise. We. Have. To. Keep. Low. Profile!" Ratchet said, exasperated.  
"Hey, chill, Ratchet! I was just joking around!" Cliffjumper said, throwing his hands to the air.

Alyssa noticed that the air between Ratchet and Cliffjumper was even tenser than ever before. She leaned towards Arcee.  
"Hey, what's up with those two? They're almost at each other's throats!" she whispered.  
"It's about a recent, unapproved solo mission Cliff went on. Don't ask what happened out there, because I don't know. He isn't telling anyone about it," Arcee told.  
"Crap," Alyssa muttered.  
"If you think it's for the best to go there, then go," Optimus told.  
"Ok, I'll tell the folks tomorrow that I'm going," Alyssa told happily. "And I can let you see the footage we get from there when we've got it shared with everyone!" She was a bit disappointed to not have the whole weekend spend with the Autobots, but she was sure she would have fun at the IT fair. Her class would learn a lot from it.

The weekend came. But it was not without its complications...

 **/Transformers Prime (c) Hasbro, the humans of this story (c) Me/**


	10. Chapter 10: Uh-oh

The lecturer kept on rambling. Alyssa made sure her video camera was recording and yawned. There was something very boring about the way the lecturer talked, so she gazed at the skies.

Suddenly the lecture seemed much more interesting to look at, as Starscream along with some Vehicons flew over them. She stared at the lecturer and his boring glasses. _No, there are no 'Cons flying over me, there are no 'Cons flying over me, there are no 'Cons..._

As of the sudden murmur that arose immediately after the Decepticons had disappeared out of their sight, some people had noticed it. _Yikes!_

Nothing happened, and lecture continued. The lecturer himself had noticed nothing out of ordinary and while the murmur arose, he paused to see the situation and continued as no one seemed to have any questions.

But out of those who had, only Alyssa knew what it meant. She gulped and reminded herself to put some messages to the Autobots if the Decepticons showed up again.  
"That was boring," Vilgot sighed after the lecture ended. "I knew about 60 % about the stuff."  
"85 %," Alyssa said.  
"What was that sudden murmur at that one point?" Vilgot wondered.  
"Your guess is as good as mine," Alyssa said, trying to keep the idea of Decepticons arriving to the scene away from her mind.

They walked around. For the next 30 minutes they would have nothing to do.

Suddenly those rather boring 30 minutes turned exciting, as Starscream and Bulkhead suddenly came to the borderlines of the fair area. People gathered to watch the fight. Alyssa just stared in horror at them. Now things were not going along the agreed script between her and the 'Bots.

Then she noticed a cameraman and some odd-looking equipment alongside a red car with horns on the bonnet. And some people working on the equipment.  
"Keep away, keep away! Testing new technology for the film industry! No cameras, please!" shouted one of the workers. He sounded like Cliffjumper.

Bulkhead hit Starscream with his wrecking ball. The Seeker fell to the ground and noticed Alyssa.  
"You," he hissed and reached towards her.  
"Run screaming! It looks good on the film!" shouted the same worker. And people ran. But Alyssa did not. She had frozen.  
"Let's go!" Vilgot took Alyssa's arm and ran screaming bloody murder, even though it sounded fake. Alyssa followed, completely dazed. Starscream kept following despite of Bulkhead keeping him partly occupied.

Then Alyssa tripped. She fell to the ground.  
"Go, boy! This looks good on the film!" the worker yelled to the megaphone. Vilgot left Alyssa reluctantly and Alyssa got up.

Starscream approached the girl, who took the first object she got to her hand – a rock – and threw it at Starscream's head. She felt an unknown and overwhelming strength in her right arm as she threw. The rock hit Starscream's forehead with a loud clang. Then Bulkhead tore Starscream away from Alyssa, letting the girl run.

Vilgot was close by, waiting for her.  
"Are you ok?" he asked.  
"Yeah," Alyssa answered. Her arm felt numb now.  
"Oh man, that was so exciting! We got to a movie! We really need to ask them what it's named! I'm _so_ gonna watch it once it arrives to the cinemas!" Vilgot said. He sounded very excited.  
"Me too," Alyssa played along as she surreptitiously peered at her arm. It seemed weird. Just weird. Something was off.

Alyssa made sure Vilgot was still rambling and touched her arm. It felt... It felt... _metallic_!

Alyssa swallowed silently and pretended that nothing was wrong. Vilgot had noticed nothing as they joined the talking group of their classmates.  
"Did ya guys see that movie set out there? It's so cool!" Vilgot said.  
"Yeah. We ran screaming like little girls!" Afanasy told as he put his elbow to the shoulder of his twin brother, Andrei.  
" _And_ we stayed to watch in shadows. It looked real cool. Are you sure you did not know about it before, Alyssa?" Andrei said.

 _Oh no, they saw it!_

"Not really. Some dude in the crowd just told me to trip and throw a rock at St- the gray robot," Alyssa lied.  
"Really? I did not notice that," Vilgot noted.  
"She was very subtle," Alyssa told. She did not mostly feel her right arm at all anymore. Yet she had to keep her panic inside.  
"Ok, the filming ended. We need to get to the next checkpoints," Maria noted.  
"Oh yeah, that's true! Let's go then!" Andrei said.  
"Yay, another boring lecture by that... what was his name anyways?" Vilgot said. Alyssa shrugged and asked, "Hey Fanya, Andrusha, want to change spots?"  
"Nope!" the twins answered. They left fast and Alyssa sighed.  
"I hope I won't fall asleep there," she sighed.  
"No worries, I'll wake you up if you do," Vilgot promised.

Just five minutes later they were sitting again, listening to the lecture. Alyssa touched her arm. It still felt metallic. She knocked it very lightly and heard a clang as response. She swallowed again. What was happening to her?

 _Human flesh_ , Alyssa thought, _human flesh, blood, veins, tissue, nerves, organic stuff... human flesh. Human flesh.._

Suddenly she felt her arm again. It returned back to normal. She swallowed in horror.

What was that? How did it even happen, or when? What was happening to her?

 **/Transformers Prime (c) Hasbro, the humans of this story (c) Me/**


	11. Chapter 11: What's going on?

Alyssa did not think she could eat anything, but she forced her lunch to her mouth and into her stomach. She did not want _anyone_ know about what had happened.

It was Monday again. Alyssa had refrained from communicating with the Autobots just to keep from attracting any more Decepticon attention. Saturday had been a way too close one. There was only about three hours to leave the school and to the Autobot base.

Matti was staring at Alyssa and her reluctant eating. Alyssa sensed his stare and turned to look at him. Their gazes met and Alyssa frowned at him. Matti tilted his eyebrow. Alyssa did not let it show, but the anger of seeing that ugly face of her human enemy was slowly replaced by horror. Matti had not been at the fair, _he could not have been there_ , but he had noticed the tiny changes in Alyssa's behavior. Alyssa frowned even more to hide her horror and to seem like she had no idea what he had in mind. Matti gave her a notable gaze and an evil smile. Then he turned to resume eating.  
"What is it, 'Lyssa?" Marie's voice made Alyssa startle. She turned to look at her worried friends.  
"Matti was gawking at me like a dimwit," Alyssa muttered. "Who knows what he is up to now?"  
"Who knows, yeah," Lin muttered. She, too, had noticed that something was wrong.

Alyssa watched Matti sideways shortly before she forced the rest of her lunch down. She really wanted to talk with her alien comrades – maybe even _friends_ , she could say. But why with the Autobots out of everyone she knew? She believed they had come to her mind because they could have an idea about what was happening. Or at least they could understand it better than anyone else she knew. After all, they were metallic.

The lessons seemed to be slower than ever before. Alyssa wanted to leave already to get to the Autobots and get the anxiety out of her system. But she had to fake, she had to keep her profile low. She had to keep it even lower than usually.

Even for a Monday, getting out of the classroom at the end of the day was more relieving than ever before. She quickly said goodbyes and rushed back home. Her bike had finally been repaired after being dented by a reckless moped driver and she could ride back home. Relieving the accumulating anxiety by using it as fuel to keep cycling onwards fast, she did not slow down. The cooling wind felt both good and uncomfortable on her face.

No one was at home. As Alyssa stopped and caught her breath, the anxiety returned. In the silence it creeped back to her mind. But no one was at home, no one saw her pace all around as she waited for the GroundBridge no one else saw. She had managed to hide everything so well. But now, for the first time after she had managed to put a good pace for her double-life, she was afraid that her cover was going down. And if it was, she knew it was going down hard.

The GroundBridge opened one minute late. Alyssa knew how precise Ratchet was about time, so she felt some suspicions. She rushed through the portal.

Her worries were forgotten fast as she saw Arcee rush to the med bay.  
"Hey, what's up?" Alyssa shouted in worry. _Who has been injured this time?_  
"We have emergencies! Three of them!" Arcee shouted back. Alyssa ran to the med bay and saw Bulkhead, Bumblebee and Cliffjumper, all in bad condition. Optimus, Arcee and Ratchet were all doing what they could to stop Energon leakages. Alyssa climbed up and shouted, "What can I do?!"  
"Get here to hold a leakage!" Ratchet shouted as he tried to close a gaping tear in Bulkhead's armor. Energon was flooding all over the berths, but Alyssa ignored it and rushed there. Ratchet pointed at a smaller wound and Alyssa pressed it, forgetting about the odious feeling of her feet getting wet as Energon soaked her shoes and socks.

The Autobots – mostly Ratchet – barked orders to each other and Alyssa. The girl lost the track of time and did not even notice the metallic feeling she started to feel in her Energon-coated feet. To her everything was just hectic but controlled chaos of voices, some of which beeping, clattering or verbal, bleeding Energon and swift movements.

"There. Finally," Ratchet sighed in relief as he put the final patch on Bumblebee's torso. Alyssa huffed and fell to her rear in exhaustion. At first, she thought there was just sweat on her forehead, but then she realized there was Energon too, and the blue liquid was all over her hair too.

She thought that the numbness in her feet was only caused by exhaustion, but as she took her shoes and socks off and stood up, the soft clang which originated from her feet startled her.  
"Did you drop something?" Ratchet asked and turned to look at the girl who was already carefully crouching to touch her feet. There was the same metallic feeling now.  
"Errr..." Alyssa said. _What had I planned to say about this anyway?_ "I did not drop anything but... I'm curious so...uh..."  
"Yes?" Ratchet's impatience was audible. Even Arcee and Optimus had stopped and looked at the girl.  
"I was wondering if Cybertronians radiate something which can be harmful or something to... organics..." Alyssa said. She could not help panicking.  
"The only radiation we have comes from our spark, but you have not encountered any Cybertronian with their spark chamber torn open, so you have not been exposed to such radiation," Ratchet said evenly, though irritated. "What are you implying?"

Alyssa straightened her back. Her flesh did not move the way it was supposed to. She took a deep breath through her nose, trying to weave the thoughts and feelings into sensical sentences.  
"Well?" Ratchet demanded.  
"Well on the last Saturday when that damn Starscream came up on me in front of everyone, my right arm turned metallic, and now my feet are doing the bloody same and I have no fucking idea how or why!" Alyssa shouted everything out and after the words panting followed.  
"Wow, that was a good load of swearing," Cliffjumper remarked weakly.  
"Metallic?" Ratchet repeated, suspicious.  
"Well yeah!" Alyssa said and stomped the ground hard, making a stronger clang. "I somehow managed to revert my arm back to normal by thinking what it's supposed to be, but this is freaking me out!"

Ratchet frowned and turned to look at Optimus. The Prime was frowning too, his expression worried.  
"I'd better check on you right away," Ratchet said solemnly.

 **/Transformers Prime (c) Hasbro, the humans of this story (c) Me/**


	12. Chapter 12: Change

Alyssa stood still as Ratchet calibrated his scanner. As far as the Autobot medic had told her, he had taken her DNA signature to the logs soon after she had been taken as part of Team Prime, and thus he could now compare it to whatever readings the scanner would give and find any mutations that have appeared to Alyssa's DNA.

 _Mutations._ Suddenly hearing that word made Alyssa frightened deep to her core instead of making her interested.

Ratchet finished the calibrations and started to scan the human girl. Alyssa knew she could not tell anything by the red color of the beam, but it still made her worried.

Then the beam went out. Ratchet did not say anything. More than anything Alyssa wanted to bomb him with questions about the results, but she had to give the medic time to concentrate.

For some time everyone was silent. Alyssa felt her legs going numb and trembly.  
"Hey, no rush, Ratchet, but can I get my feet back to normal now? I don't know when I will fall," Alyssa said. Ratchet scowled at her; the girl could not read the expression on the metallic face, and therefore she did not know how worried he was.  
"Go on," the medic's voice was low.

Alyssa closed her eyes. _Human flesh. Human flesh. Human flesh_ , she drowned her mind with the thoughts of what her feet were supposed to be.

Blood rushed down in her veins and Alyssa fell to her knees. She felt the metal surface. Everything was back to normal again. Or at least just as normal as possible in her situation. She sighed in relief.  
"How much do you understand about DNA structure?" Ratchet asked.  
"Umm... I dunno. Nothing?" Alyssa answered honestly.  
"Take a look at this and tell me I you can point out something," Ratchet said and turned the scanner's screen to her so that she could take a look at two DNA structures. Arya squinted very hard.  
"You know, that one on the right looks slightly different to me. Some exact spots have different colors," she said slowly. "What does it mean?"  
"The one on the right is what I just got from you, while the left one is the original," Ratchet said and turned the scanner back on, ignoring the horrorstruck expression which took over Alyssa's face. "I compared it to the humanized basic CNA structure and I found the differing parts completely match with the CNA."  
"And CNA is what?" Alyssa asked carefully. "Do I even dare to ask?"  
"You already dared," Arcee noted. Even though the situation was grim, the human's faltering quip still managed to amuse her.  
"CNA is cybernucleid acid," Ratchet noted.  
"Dude, that doesn't help. It's like if I had said that DNA is deoxyribonucleic acid to an alien," Alyssa noted. "Wait... do you intend to tell me that CNA is the Cybertronian equivalent of human DNA?"  
"You hit the nail on the head," Cliffjumper informed.  
"So... by counting one plus one, does it equal that I'm... TURNING INTO A CYBERTRONIAN?!" Alyssa could not help shrieking the last four words.  
"That seems to be the case," Ratchet said as he turned the scanner off. "Your DNA is completely back to normal again."  
"So you can control it," Bulkhead said, "right?"  
"Well I certainly haven't had any sort of control over when it appears," Alyssa noted. "But at least for the time being I can control reversion."  
"This is serious," Optimus said solemnly. "Alyssa, do you have any sort of idea what could have caused this sudden phenomenon?"  
"Well, the radiation was already excluded, so I have no idea," Alyssa said and shrugged. "The 'Cons haven't done me anything that could have caused this, either. At least I doubt it, since why would they have done something like this anyways? I was conscious for most of the time anyway, so I think I would've noticed if they did something to me. At least if it left a mark on me... I think."  
"What then?" Bulkhead wondered.  
"For the time being we don't know," Ratchet said, "but we need to look into this. There may lie a bigger problem we have no idea about, so we'd better find out what's causing this. Alyssa, I need you to tell everything you know about it, from what it feels like to the situations where this has occurred. And I'd prefer it now."  
"Sure. Do ya want it as a written form or shall I just prattle it outta my mouth?" Alyssa asked.  
"Write it down," Ratchet said and nodded to the interface in the other room. Then he held out his hand to her. "Hop on so that you get there faster."  
"You serious?" Alyssa asked.  
"Just hop on already," Ratchet growled. Alyssa made the small jump off the table to the hand of the medic, doing her best to not look down or falter when she was carried. Ratchet almost dropped her to the small spot he had given the human to use. Alyssa did not waste time on starting. Ratchet, on the other hand, turned to type his own notes.  
"You know... I am not sure about what just happened," Cliffjumper noted as he looked at the back of the medic from his berth.  
"We have to be careful. If the sudden mutations in Alyssa's DNA have been caused by us, we may unintentionally pose a great threat towards the human race," Optimus said grimly.  
"Well let's hope this is not our fault! I mean I at least would love to keep Alyssa around!" Cliffjumper laughed. "It's great to have someone who does not frown upon my acts more often than not!"  
"If you didn't act like a moron, we wouldn't frown," Arcee said and patted the shoulder of her partner. Then she turned to look at Bumblebee, whom Ratchet had put to a stasis for recovering. This one had been a dire incident in which they could have lost one of their own, and Alyssa had not hesitated to rush to help them. In a way Arcee, too, would miss the girl if her mutation was their fault indeed and she would have to leave them.

Alyssa reminisced the situations in which she had changed. They had been such situations in which she had needed extra strength. And it had been near Cybertronians. Those were the main points she found, but she included everything else into detail just in case the Autobot medic could find something else. Something Alyssa could not think of, but which could be fully obvious to the Autobot medic. She was ready to do all in her might – no matter how little it was – to help them find out what was happening to her.

Alyssa believed that if this had happened to someone else, she would have said that it is awesome. But when it happened to her, when she was the one with all the changes and uncertainty, it was not awesome. Heck, it was not even _funny_ or _tragicomic_! It was horrible.  
"Don't worry, we will figure this out," Ratchet said under his breath. Alyssa turned to look at him, but the medic kept his gaze fixed to the screen, not even noticing that she was looking at him.

 _I guess he was talking to himself_ , Alyssa mused, shrugged and returned to typing. _And you better be right, Ratchet._

 _ **/Transformers Prime (c) Hasbro, the humans of this story (c) Me/**_


	13. Chapter 13: Less than a human?

_So... by counting one plus one, does it equal that I'm... TURNING INTO A CYBERTRONIAN?!_

 _That seems to be the case._

Those two lines between her and Ratchet were haunting Alyssa, repeating themselves in her head as she forced her lunch down. She had to eat something.

After she had left the Autobot base, the giant ship of theirs – from her point of view it was giant, but the 'Bots insisted that it was quite small – quite late yesterday, she had not eaten anything. She had just gone to sleep, then skipped the breakfast by oversleeping; she had barely made it in time for school. Both sleeping and eating were difficult when you could only think about the fact that you were turning into an alien robot for reasons unknown.

She masked the horror and insecurity dwelling inside herself. She had to. No one, not even her parents, must know of what was happening. It was the only way, Alyssa knew it. She had to continue the path she had chosen and hope that she will get answers, someday.

Faking laugh and smile, even the usual anger towards Matti, felt very easy. For the first time ever since the very first lessons she could not care less for what the nasty teacher did. She just wanted to be alone and let the secret anguish out on her own. Maybe picking a furious song and singing along it could help?

The day seemed to fly by in blur. Alyssa realized that she could not focus her thoughts on anything, and as she came back home alone, she realized that she remembered nothing of what had happened during the day. _I'd better excuse it with a headache_ , she thought. She was not hungry, but she knew she had to eat something. _Maybe I am just getting a migraine attack._ It seemed the most logical thing in the normal life.

It was a logical explanation, and she wanted to cling to it, but she knew that migraine would not be the primary reason for her lack of appetite. Even the reason for the migraine would be something else: her fright about what was happening to her. The fright of being something else than a human; maybe even something _less_ than a human, if her mutation was taking her humanity away.

Before Alyssa could shed any tears, a text message came from her phone. She checked who had sent it and her breath caught; it was from the Autobot base. With haste she abandoned her bread and opened the message. It said: _I figured something out. Come immediately._

The GroundBridge opened and Alyssa did not hesitate to go into it; however, she did turn back to get her bread with her.  
"What did ya figure out?!" she yelled as soon as she came out of the GroundBridge.  
"Come over here," Arcee told and kneeled so that she could take Alyssa to her hand. Quickly munching a part of her bread, she hopped on, heart beating. Arcee lifted her to the usual place, and Alyssa turned to look at the medic. The grim expression made Alyssa catch her breath again in anxiety, but this time she had to cough to not choke on her bread. Her legs were shaking, and she knew that she could not handle this anxiety.  
"What have you found out, dude?" she asked evenly after the violent coughing.  
"It seems that back when you were captive on the Decepticon warship, the Decepticons fiddled with your nervous systems, thus causing this phenomenon of yours to trigger when you need strength that is more Cybertronian than human," Ratchet told solemnly. He knew that everyone in the team was there and listening to him, but he concentrated on Alyssa alone.  
"What?!" the human shrieked. "The 'Cons did something to my nerves?! Hey, listen, this isn't April Fool's Day! The only marks of anything which happened on that bloody warship came from the chains! There was nothing else!"  
"They did not need to open up your skin to set a small compulsion to your nervous system," Ratchet noted.  
"Ok, so the fact that this phenomenon is occurring is because of the 'Cons. Will ya now tell me that they're behind this damn phenomenon itself?" Alyssa asked.  
"That does not seem to be the case," Ratchet said evenly.  
" _Then what is?!_ " Alyssa nearly screamed. She felt that she could not handle this anymore.  
"The effect of being in contact with bled Energon. The Energon you have been in contact with has had enough life force to having started to alter your genetics to more like our genetics," Ratchet told evenly, trying to ignore how much Alyssa's highly-pitched tone had hurt his audio sensors. He tried to understand the human's distress. _Think about how you'd feel if you suddenly started to turn into a human. What a terrible thought!_

Alyssa recounted the incidents during which she had been in contact with Energon. Her arms and legs had been in contact with the liquid the most.  
"So ya mean that there is some sort of a radiation coming from the Energon?!" she could not help raising her tone into a higher pitch again as she got near the ending of her question.  
"I have not been able to detect any sort of radiation from it, so I don't know. It seems to be the most logical explanation, but there is nothing to prove it."  
"Energon is the emanation of Primus himself, so it is possible, that it has effects of which we have no idea," Optimus stepped out of the shadows as he talked. He turned to look at Alyssa as he said, "some of which may apply to organic species, but not us."  
"So ya think that Energon may be turning me into the same as you guys?" Alyssa asked. She had already noticed that everyone was there, but no one dared to say anything. They were all awestruck by this new information.  
"It is possible. After all, Energon is our life source," Optimus answered. "But as it seems to be the case that our Energon is behind your mutation, it is for the best that you stay away from it on our medical bay from now on."  
"Any idea of how hazardous it would be if this thing just continued? If we suppose it's the Energon that's causing this and I won't stay away from it?" Alyssa ventured.  
"We have no idea. It could be that you would turn into a Cybertronian for good without being able to return back to your human self, or you would become a cross of them, stuck between two forms," Ratchet told.

Alyssa pondered a bit of these chances. She did not want to become useless to them, but she did not want to end up a half-human, half-Cybertronian either.  
"Do I need to stay away from the med bay completely when someone's bleeding or do I just need to avoid contact with the Energon?" she asked.  
"I would suggest you stay away completely to not risk anything," Ratchet noted.  
"Seriously?" Alyssa asked. "C'mon, I don't wanna become useless here!"  
"You won't become useless. I'm sure there is something else for you to do in order to help us," Cliffjumper suddenly voiced. "Like teach us even more about this world."  
"It's not the same," Alyssa muttered. "I've taught you enough so that you could just google anything else you need to know..."

Cliffjumper tried to think of something else. He did not want the girl to become depressed.  
"Hey, somebody say something. There has to be something," he said. He could think of nothing, and after looking at everyone else he turned to look at Ratchet. His gaze stayed on the medic, who kept his cool gaze on him.  
"Well ok, I'll just hang out here and see when I will be able to do something to help ya out. Now is there anything you want to tell me about today or something?" Alyssa asked. "Let's change the subject if this topic is over now."

The Autobots looked at each other. At this point, it seemed that they had made a mistake when they had taken an innocent human to this mess.

 **/Transformers Prime (c) Hasbro, the humans of this story (c) Me/**


	14. Chapter 14: Gray Thoughts

Alyssa sighed and concentrated again. _Metallic arms. Metallic body. Whatever metal Cybertronians are. Just lemme control this shit._

Nothing happened. Alyssa knew that she had not been mutated enough to control turning into her "Cybertronian form", as she had started to call it. She had stayed away from the Energon when someone had been bleeding it, but with good precautions she had been handing tools to Ratchet when needed. That much she had managed to negotiate with the medic and the Autobot leader, who held most of the power to decide on things.

 _Just goddammit._

Alyssa stood up. It had been another two weeks now, and the weather was cooling. August had changed to September, and summer had changed to autumn. Very few went outside without their coats on anymore. The heat had gone away, giving way to the slowly but surely approaching winter.

The swings of the playground stood abandoned. No one was coming, and Alyssa realized it now. She had been waiting for her friends for an hour now, but nobody came. They had planned an afternoon together, but every single of her three close friends had gotten something else to do, something obligatory that kept them from coming.

It was such an unlikely coincidence, yet it had really happened. The reasons were true, but part of Alyssa insisted that none of them had wanted to go. She felt depressed by that.

 _It must be this damn gray day._

A purple car passed by again. It had been going past the playground for a few times; the human girl was positive that it was a Decepticon who had recognized her.

 _Maybe it's just for the best that no one is coming... They won't become targets of the 'Cons..._

Alyssa feared that she could not text the Autobots without giving their position to the Decepticons who were most likely tracking her phone's data. _If I move, I may be screwed. If I text for help, the other's may be found. If I stay, I may be taken away. I'll have to get out of here anyways. What should I do?_

Alyssa knew that she had to move away from the playground at some point. She had spotted someone who lived nearby watching her. She was suspicious as heck, and she knew it. But as she had stood, listening to the cool wind howl, she knew that she should get going. No one was coming for her, only the purple 'Con was there to threaten her.

The wind kept howling as if it was wailing about something. Alyssa just pushed against it, giving a nod to the inhabitant of the nearby house who had now come to the other window to see the black-clothed girl leave. There must have been a gang causing trouble around here, so much the girl could decipher from the frightened face of the oldish woman.

Alyssa could hear the purple car's engine growl behind her, as she walked along the road. _Primus, help me._

The car was closer now. Alyssa risked the glance over her shoulder and saw the Decepticon insignia on the bonnet. The Decepticon seemed to be slowly revealing his hidden guns to shoot at her.

No one was there to take Alyssa Rinne, but there was someone to shoot at her. And that someone was an alien robot from the outer space.

At first, fear struck Alyssa. For a fleeting moment, she had a sensation of her insides disappearing, but that sensation lifted as soon as she fully registered it.

The Decepticon was now charging to shoot. Alyssa knew she had to run.

Swinging her head back onwards, she sprung to sprint. The Decepticon sped up, trying to catch her, but as the girl sped up her pace, the Decepticon started to shoot to get her faster. Alyssa just kept running; she could not think about avoiding any hit, should she end up into their line. Her feet were carrying her faster than the wind pushed against her.

Adrenaline rushing in her veins, the girl could hear the blood rush in the veins of her ears. She felt like she was passing through the currents of the air, the sounds of the explosions of the missing shots rumbling behind her. She kept running and running and running.

To the forest. Alyssa ran past the stumps, jumped over the roots and stones, and kept on going in silence, scaring birds and wild animals as she ran.

She did not know for how long or how far she ran. She only knew that when she finally stumbled on a root, falling hurt. But the dash ended, and while she was bruised and full of wounds and scratches, she was alive in the silence. The Decepticon had not followed her, but she was lost.

Alyssa did not understand how she had been able to run for so long and so fast. Her feet felt numb, but they were there. They were metallic.

 _So the 'Con triggered it, huh..._

Alyssa pushed herself up and sat down on a stump. She checked her phone; it had not broken when she had fallen, but there was no network. She could call no one, and she could not access anything to get back home.

 _I guess I must move on to the direction I came from. I ran to the same direction all the time, so I'll get back home that way..._

Taking a few breaths, ignoring her grumbling stomach, she gathered her strength to stand up and start to follow the rough footprints her sprints had made. The distance between each footprint showed her that she certainly had almost literally flown through the air.

 _Time to go..._

Alyssa started walking, her metal feet making hardly any more sounds than her usual human feet made.

 **/Transformers Prime (c) Hasbro, the humans of this story (c) Me/**


	15. Chapter 15: Human Limits

Alyssa inspected her feet. She was not leaking anything, but the metallic feeling seemed to have gotten stronger. _Could it be from the Energon-soaked clothes I've worn?_ she wondered.

The footprints just kept continuing.  
"Come on! Am I dreaming an endless dream or what?!" Alyssa scoffed; they were the first words she had said since calling Lin. She could not tell how long ago that was; the night-break would be soon, though, she believed. It was already getting quite dark.

Alyssa's stomach growled but her feet felt no fatigue. The Cybertronian strength was marvelous, it was something so amazing, but Alyssa still did not like the idea of turning into a Cybertronian very much. It was a scary thing to turn into something completely else than what you had been born into and been all your life. And what would her human friends say if she turned into a giant alien robot? Lin, Selena and Marie meant very much to her; they were her dearest friends ever. Alyssa did not know if she could handle losing them. Even if she became something more than she could have ever dreamt to be, could she pay such a price?

She could only doubt that as she checked her phone for any sort of network, but the bars on the top right corner of the screen were missing. There was still no network. "Goddammit. Just how far must I go with this thing to get any sort of a connection to the outer world?"

Suddenly her phone picked up a signal and started to deliver messages there. All of a sudden, the silence was broken into a moment of shrieking message voices.  
"Finally," Alyssa sighed. "Finally something."

She started to answer the worried messages fast and explained things to her friends with the battery dying, and with the Decepticon attacker to the Autobots and her parents. She received a GroundBridge to the Autobot base where she could explain everything.

After she had finished explaining to her worried Autobot comrades, she finally felt dizzy with exhaustion. That was when she recalled her feet the existence of she had forgotten about; when they were metallic, she felt as much as if they did not exist.  
"Ya know... my blood sugar has most likely gone down badly," she muttered and sat down on the desk. "I've not eaten anything for many hours... What time is it anyways?"  
"It's now near 23 on your time zone," Ratchet informed. "Can you revert your feet back to human flesh?"  
"23... Oh, can I do it tomorrow, I should be sleepin' already..." Alyssa groaned and lay down. "Can I just sleep here? I feel so tired..."  
"You need to go home, eat something and then sleep. You need to get your... blood sugar up before you rest," Optimus said.  
"Whateva ya say, dude," Alyssa muttered and sat up. "Ya need anythin' else?"

Optimus took a look at the rest of the team. No one said anything. Ratchet shook his head to him so little that only the Prime noticed it.  
"No. Ratchet, unless you have something else for her as doctor's orders, open the GroundBridge and let her go home," Optimus said.

Alyssa's father had fallen asleep despite the loud roar of the television; NHL match between Minnesota Wild (the team he supports because he is from the same place as the team) and Anaheim Ducks was very even. But even Alyssa's father could not stay asleep when a big bright green portal opened in front of him; he woke up with a startle, but as he saw his daughter coming from the GroundBridge, he calmed down.  
"It took you long enough, Alyssa. Where have you been?" he asked.  
"A 'Con drove me to a forest. Took me long enough before reaching any place where I could get a cell phone signal," Alyssa muttered. "I'll just eat somethin' and then go to sleep. G'night."

After muttering her explanation, Alyssa took a cheese bun from the kitchen and went to her room, munching the bun. She could not have bothered chewing, but she knew that she had to eat something. She needed energy tomorrow, for it was another school day then. She could rest more during the weekend.

What she had already forgotten about were her metallic feet. She slept without reverting her legs back...

 _On the next day at school_

"So, wazzup, 'Lyssa? How did ya make your phone's battery die?" Marie asked.  
"I dunno, something that I did not close down, I think. I seriously need a new phone, it feels like this one's getting crappier month by month," Alyssa answered. She could not tell the truth, not even though she still felt cold after yesterday's trek to the forest. She believed that she was going to be sick soon; most likely fever was already coming to drag her down to the bottom of her bed.

The bell rang. It was time to go to the lesson. On the way to the mathematics classroom, Selena leant to Alyssa's shoulder and whispered to her ear, "Listen, I'm really sorry about yesterday. Do you have time today? We could hang out then."  
"Sure," Alyssa said, a bit cheered up by that. Out of her three best friends, Selena was the one she trusted the most. While Lin and Marie were dear to her, Selena was the closest to Alyssa and she seemed to know the girl-turning-into-a-Cybertronian the best despite of having known her for as long as the other two girls.

Alyssa truly appreciated Selena's gesture and now more than ever she would have wanted to tell her about what worried her, just like she had used to do before she got involved with Cybertronians. Her urge to tell her friend about what she had gotten into clashed with the necessity to keep it a secret. She knew she could trust Selena, but could she trust her that much?

Necessity and doubt, urge and trust. Optimus's orders weighted more than a human's will, and thus Alyssa knew that she would not tell even Selena anything about her double life. She could discuss about her worries with the Autobots as well; surely someone like Arcee, Bumblebee or Cliffjumper would listen to her.

For the first time ever since the whole ordeal started, Alyssa wondered, _Would it actually be easier to be a Cybertronian than a human in this mess?_

She knew that even if it was _not_ , it would cost her. It could cost her _everything_ she had in her human life.

 **/Transformers Prime (c) Hasbro, the humans of this story (c) Me/**


	16. Chapter 16: Trustworthy

After school Alyssa hanged out with Selena.  
"Listen, there's something I need to tell ya," Selena said.  
"Go ahead," Alyssa said.  
"I'm... worried about Lin and Marie." Had it been just Lin, Alyssa would have thought of Lin's anorexia was coming back without her noticing, but if it was Marie too, then something was truly awry.  
"What about them?"  
"I think... Well, since you started that... secret project of yours, they have become kinda distant. Have you noticed?"

Alyssa felt her insides go cold for she could not say that she had noticed; the Cybertronian things had plagued her mind badly recently. She said nothing, and Selena continued, "Anyway, they have started to hang out with each other, and they have stopped inviting you. Actually, I feel like they're starting to do the same to me, too."

Alyssa felt bad. This was not what she had wanted. Why would the things not stay neutral?  
"I understand that they're starting to assume that I can _never_ hang out, but why you?" she asked.  
"That's what worries me the most: I dunno. I mean, they both do know that I am closer to you than them, but... It's just all weird. I feel like our group is dividing," Selena said. "I guess what you are doing is important to you, and I know that I can trust you, but... this is all just escalating. And I don't know what to do. I want to stay as your friend, but sometimes it feels like I should choose between waiting for the time when you can get anywhere or just be with them and leave you. Seriously, you're all my friends! I can't choose between you!"

First all the stress from turning into a Cybertronian, and now _this_! Alyssa wanted to cry, she wanted to cry so bad, she wanted to cry the bitter tears out from her system. Why the hell had she ever chosen to join the Autobots? Why did she not stay away from things that were not her business?

She felt shock and utter sadness. So, she was already losing Lin and Marie, huh? Selena was a loyal and trustworthy friend, but should she make things easy for her and let her go? If she gave up her friends, could she then turn into a Cybertronian? Then it would not cost her the friends, for at that point she had none to lose. She would not pay that unpayable price. Instead, she had already paid it, and the price would not be for turning into a Cybertronian; it would be for choosing to battle in a secret war with alien robots.

Would she devote her life to that if she lost her friends?

The more she thought about it, the more she felt like crying. She could not stop thinking. Then, all of a sudden, she could not stop the tears from erupting. She just sat down on a bench, buried her face to her palms and cried and cried and cried. Bitterness and anger were the tastes of those tears.  
"I don't wanna lose ya guys! Ya matter to me so much, but what I'm doing is important!" she bawled.  
"I know, 'Lyssa, I know," Selena said and hugged her.

At some point Alyssa could stop. She wiped her tears away.  
"Can you tell me what you're doing?" Selena asked. Alyssa shook her head and mumbled: "Top-secret." Selena merely nodded.  
"They don't know that I saw them, but I did see them yesterday. They went to movies without us," she told. "They must've no idea about this, but listen, someday we have to confront them about this, if this continues."  
"Ya don't need to fight for me," Alyssa sobbed. "If ya feel like joining them, then do it. I understand."

It hurt to say so, but she believed that if she broke those ties, it would make things easier when the haze of the pain would dissipate.  
"I won't leave you! I have always been able to trust you! And since _they_ are turning their backs on you, I guess I can't trust them that much. They'd just leave me too at some point, I think," Selena noted.  
"Thanks... I... I can't tell how much I appreciate that," Alyssa was torn between uttermost gratitude and furious disappointment. She had to keep fighting against revealing the secret she held, but she would not face the trouble of the normal adolescent life alone. She still had a trustworthy human friend, and it seemed that she had picked the right one to trust.

Alyssa stole a glance at Selena. She could not trust her friend with the massive truth of her double-life. It was too much; no matter how much she wanted to tell that secret, she could not burden her friend with such great worry. It was not right at all, she knew it.  
"'Lyssa, you know that you can trust me with anything. You know that, right?" Selena did not know that she was tearing her friend apart slowly and painfully.  
"Yeah, I know. Thanks," Alyssa blinked so that she could keep the tears from coming out of her eyes. The emotional torture kept on going, but she could not tell Selena that she could not tell her what was going on.

A red car with horns on the bonnet drove slowly past them. Neither of the girls could make out the face of the driver, but Alyssa knew who it was: Cliffjumper. He, along with everyone else in Team Prime, had grown increasingly worried about her safety as the Decepticon activity had increased in the area. Yesterday had been a notably close call. Therefore, the Autobot team was increasing their patrols in the same area.  
"Now that is a cool car," Selena noted. "Certainly not one of the locals." She waved to the driver who did not respond. Of course Cliffjumper had noticed the girls, but he decided to keep his hologram blurred by his darkened windows from responding.

Alyssa noticed an Energon leakage coming down on his front wheel. Something had happened to the Autobot. _Oh no, not 'Cons, not now!_

She saw a gray jet flying over them on quite a low altitude. It carried two missiles which Alyssa suddenly recognized. Had Starscream attacked Cliffjumper and gone after him as the Autobot had managed to retreat?

Starscream sped away. He had seen Selena with Alyssa.

 **/Transformers Prime (c) Hasbro, the humans of this story (c) Me/**


	17. Chapter 17: Secrets

Starscream had seen Selena. Alyssa knew it, yet she could not warn her friend about the danger she had put herself in by being with her. Selena had already enough to worry about even without thinking of dangerous alien robots.

Instead of worrying, as the first lessons had not yet started, Alyssa took a closer look on Marie and Lin. Selena had been right; their group was dividing. _Hmph! Well that was good as long as it lasted_ , Ratchet had said when she had confided in the Autobots after Selena had gone home yesterday.

 _That_ had not cheered her up at all. The others had understood, and they had supported her albeit no one could say anything about whether or not it would be a good decision for Alyssa to make to choose to turn into a Cybertronian fully.  
"Where's Selena? She should be here by now," Lin's voice woke Alyssa up from her thoughts.  
"She isn't answering the phone," Marie said as she put her phone away. "In fact, I can't even call her number."

 _It couldn't be Starscream, could it?_ Alyssa felt suddenly quite sick when the thought of her friend in the hands of the Decepticons reached her mind.  
"Maybe her phone's battery has died," she suggested. "The modern smartphones are quite unpredictable."  
"Maybe," Lin was not so sure about it. Then the bell rang. "Better hope we'll reach her after the lesson. Let's go."

Alyssa hoped both that she could keep her breakfast inside and that Selena was safe and away from the Decepticons' hands. But just to be sure, she sent an inquiry to the Autobots during the lesson. Hopefully Ratchet could see Selena's location.

It turned out that he could not.

Selena had gone utterly missing. And now Alyssa sure that it was the Decepticons' doing.

Her stomach could not handle it. She ran out of the classroom abruptly to the toilet to throw up. Neither of the things she had wished had been granted.  
"Alyssa?" the teacher had come after her. "Are you feeling sick?"  
"Well yeah!" Alyssa croaked. Vomiting made her feel even worse than she had already felt and she was close to tears now.  
"Are you ill?"  
"I guess I am... some goddamn stomach flu or something, I guess..." Alyssa vomited once more. "Can I just... go home?"  
"Can you get to the school nurse before you leave so that she can mark your absence to Wilma?" the teacher asked, deciding to ignore the foul language this time. One had to have mercy for sick people.  
"Sure... Just lemme get my stuff and I'll leave before infecting people," Alyssa was shaking now. She wanted to get to somewhere private so that she can call the Autobots.  
"Can you call your parents so that they can pick you up?" the teacher asked as Alyssa limped to the classroom, took her things and exited.  
"Yeah," the girl answered. "Bye and sorry."  
"Just get home to rest and get better soon."

Once Alyssa had gotten out of the building after visiting the nurse she sat down to the most deserted corner of the school area, took her phone and chose the number which corresponded the Autobot base's comm. channel. Ratchet answered her immediately, "We're searching her at the moment."  
"GroundBridge me to the base, will ya?" Alyssa asked weakly.  
"But you are still at school," Ratchet protested.  
"Not anymore. I took this day off. Now will ya GroundBridge me or will I just call dad and tell him to pick me up?"  
"Is that possible at your school?"  
"Just GroundBridge me and I'll tell ya."

A sigh came from the other end of the phone.  
"Alright, I'll GroundBridge you here. But then you must explain this," Ratchet said.  
"Thanks, dude," Alyssa said. The GroundBridge appeared and the girl walked through it, ending the phone call.

"What's going on?" Arcee asked.  
"Alyssa is coming here," Ratchet told. The girl walked out of the GroundBridge and sat down immediately; her feet barely carried her.  
"What's wrong, Alyssa? You look very pale," Arcee asked.  
"Just threw up my breakfast. My stomach ain't made for this kind of anxiety," Alyssa explained. "I told that I may have stomach flu, so I got the day off. And just to keep the things normal-looking, I'll stay home for a few days. But what about Selena?"  
"I just found her! She's here, lying on the bottom of a trench!" Cliffjumper's voice suddenly sounded from the comm. channel. "She seems to have hit her head, but she's alive. But I see a certain Energon blast mark on the road very near her location, so I guess a 'Con must ran into her."

Alyssa stood up immediately, ending up feeling nauseated. She was infuriated., but Selena not being captive was the most important thing, far more important that getting angry.  
"Can you get her away from there?" she asked.  
"Yes, but someone needs to get her to a human medic," Cliffjumper said.  
"Call 112," Alyssa said. "Tell them to get an ambulance and they'll handle the rest. Just have your hologram there to act as a human."  
"Okay. But you know, I'd like to have some human backup. Can you come, Alyssa?" Cliffjumper asked.

Alyssa looked up to Ratchet.  
"It depends on you," she said. "Will ya open the GroundBridge so that I can get there, Ratchet?"

Ratchet knew that if Cliffjumper failed, their cover would be blown. He had to trust that Alyssa could handle the situation. He typed in Cliffjumper's coordinates and opened the GroundBridge. Alyssa ran faster than she felt like running – she did not even feel like running at all! She gathered the Cybertronian strength in her and concentrated it to her feet. She no longer felt her feet and her shoes made the metallic voices nearly inaudible, and her clothes covered it all, but she knew that her feet were metallic now. Her insides still hated the speed, but the shaking of her feet had stopped and she had nothing left to throw up. Her head was not clear yet, although she could handle the situation better now. She had to handle it.

She rushed through the colors and found herself from a quiet road. She saw Cliffjumper in his vehicle mode and the blast mark next to him.  
"Have you called 112?" she asked.  
"Yes. Help is on the way," Cliffjumper opened up his car's door and a man who seemed to have some of Alyssa's father's looks appeared. "What do you think of my hologram?"  
"You look kinda like my dad," Alyssa noted. "If anyone asks, you're his cousin, Cliff."  
"Does he have a cousin with that name?"  
"I dunno. But that'll be a good cover story for a while."  
"Ok. But what about your friend?"  
"I'll get to her and see if I can do anything about it." Alyssa slid down to the bottom of the trench, careful not to fall. It was very slippery there. "Did the folks at PSAP say anything about how to handle her?"  
"I said that my shoulder was sprained very recently and that I can't lift anything, let alone anyone, so they told me to stop any bleeding with my hands and be careful when handling her head and neck."  
"In that case make your hologram look like it has been on his knees here. Muddy trousers and shoes from the front, and the shoes from the bottom too. If you want to, add some more mud to the sleeves." Alyssa quickly put an unused handkerchief to Selena's bleeding temple and checked her for other injuries which bled but found none. The girl was full of scratches and Alyssa spotted a couple of bruises, but as long as Selena would not have severe injuries in her head or spine, she would survive.

The ambulance came and took Selena. Alyssa was left with Cliffjumper.  
"What now?" the red Autobot asked. Alyssa pondered for a moment.  
"Would you mind if I joined you on your patrol or whatever you'll be up to now that this is over?" she asked.  
"Well it is back to patrol now. Of course I won't mind you coming along, as long as you don't throw up anything. And actually I'd advise you to clean your clothes a bit more. I don't mind getting unclean, but the vehicle mode insides are very difficult to clean when they get so dirty that it's uncomfortable," Cliffjumper said. "Plus, Ratchet likes to complain about that."

Alyssa gave her trousers a strong sweep, but she hit her leg. Not only that she heard a clang, it also hurt her hand. She swore for a moment, then continued sweeping most of the mud away more carefully.  
"There," she said then. Her hand was still sore.  
"Good. Get in," Cliffjumper said. Alyssa sat to the shotgun (what a strange name it had been to her when she had learned it from her father – in Finnish, her primary mother language, the same seat was called "the fearer's spot"), buckled up and watched the sceneries change as Cliffjumper returned to his patrol.  
"You know, your feet feel nothing, right?" Cliffjumper said.  
"Yeah. It's easier that way, really. They don't shake now. Throwing up my food really shook my system badly," Alyssa said.  
"Well I thought that your face seemed paler that usual."  
"Yeah..."

The anxiety and its effects had eaten Alyssa's strength. She told herself – and Cliffjumper – that she would close her eyes for a moment, but before she realized it, she was fast asleep.

 **/Transformers Prime (c) Hasbro, the humans of this story (c) Me/**


	18. Chapter 18: The Will

When Cliffjumper returned to the Autobot base, he carefully lifted the sleeping Alyssa from his vehicle seat, doing his best to not disturb her sleep.

"We have space in the medical bay," Ratchet said. "Besides, I need a scan on her since her feet are Cybertronian now."

Cliffjumper laid Alyssa to a fairly good place and Ratchet started to scan the girl.  
"It seems that her DNA is turning into CNA faster than I expected," Ratchet muttered mostly to himself. He took a glance at her clothes, recognizing the bizarre coloration; they were those Energon-soaked clothes.  
"How is that possible? She has not been in contact with Energon ever since the mutating started," Arcee said, having heard the medic's words. "Has she?"  
"Most likely not how we have thought. But these clothes she is wearing have been in contact with Energon, so it would be logical to assume that there is something that it has left to them which has progressed the mutation," Ratchet told. "We have to wait until she wakes up."

It took some hours for the girl to wake up, but when she finally did, she felt heavy. Especially her legs felt heavy, heavier than they should have been.  
"Good evening, kid," Cliffjumper said.  
"Cliff..." Alyssa muttered and yawned. "What's up?"  
"You fell asleep during the patrol. Now you're at the med-bay and Doc wants to have a chat with ya," Cliffjumper told.  
"Nice," Alyssa yawned again. "So where's Ratch?"  
"I'm right here," Ratchet said. "Is any piece of those Energon-soaked clothes you are wearing now ones you could lend for further scanning?"  
"Sure," Alyssa took her hoody off. "Here. I dunno why you want it but go ahead and scan it."

Ratchet took the hoody carefully to his hand and carried it to his desk. He scanned it for a while, then returned it to its yawning and tired owner.  
"There are traces of Energon in your clothes which have been in contact with it. It's progressing your mutation," he told.  
"Scrap!" Cliffjumper exclaimed, but Alyssa stayed silent. Her thoughts had stewed for a while and now she spoke up, "What if we let the mutation progress?"  
"What?" Cliffjumper asked.  
"Are you out of your mind?!" Ratchet gasped. "We cannot predict how it is going to progress or how it will affect your body! It's too risky!"  
"No pain, no gain. I've had enough with being afraid of the 'Cons whenever a fighter flies over me, and now that my friend has been attacked by one, I want to be able to fight and defend those who I care about," Alyssa said. The image of Selena in the trench made her mind clearer.  
"The fact that you are mutating doesn't mean that you would be able to fight, even if you got enough size to pose a threat. You need combat training! Can you even shoot anything?" Ratchet said.  
"Hey, what's the noise here?" Bulkhead asked as he came to the door of the med bay.  
"Alyssa wants to keep mutating so that she can fight 'Cons and Ratchet does not approve it," Cliffjumper explained.  
"Oh," Bulkhead said.  
"Ratchet, you've told me the risks many times, so I am very aware of them. And despite of that I want to try," Alyssa said.  
"You're risking everything, including your life. I am not going to allow you progress the mutation!" Ratchet snapped.  
 _I wish I has an Energon drink or snacks while watching this_ , the amused Cliffjumper thought but dared not to say it aloud as he leant back to the wall and enjoyed the show.  
"Well your approval or disapproval won't stop it!" Alyssa shouted, her face turning angry red. "Only my actions do!"  
"I can help you choose your actions to keep your mutation from progressing!" Now Ratchet, too, shouted.  
"How? By confiscating my clothes and putting me to a jail? Or by crushing me?"  
"I have choices for how to get the wanted result!" Ratchet shouted. "Though that latter one is tempting!"  
"Hey, hey, hey! Calm down, will ya?" Cliffjumper stepped between his arguing team mates before the medic would go from words to action. "What if you chat about this with Optimus once he returns?"  
"Sure," Alyssa shrugged. "If Mister Medic agrees about even that."  
"Whatever," Ratchet scoffed and turned his back to the human and Cliffjumper.  
 _Jeez… They sure heated up_ , the red Autobot thought, surprised.

Later Optimus returned with Bumblebee. Ratchet was the first one to speak up about the fight between him and Alyssa, and the human let the medic tell everything. Once Ratchet stopped talking, Optimus looked at Alyssa, who explained her point of view.  
"We shall discuss about this later. Now we have more urgent issues," Optimus said.  
"Like that we don't have much Energon available as the 'Cons are hoarding it to themselves?" Cliffjumper noted.  
"That, too. But I am more worried about the increasing Decepticon activity," Optimus replied.  
"Well surely it has gotten up in the area as Alyssa joined us," Bulkhead said.  
"No," Ratchet said, drawing everyone's attention as he walked to the console and opened up a graph to show a graph. "The Decepticon activity has kept increasing for a good while ever since some time before Alyssa joined us. In fact, her and her family's kidnapping by the Vehicons was due to the increasing 'Con activity on scouting Energon."  
"Okay, so 'Cons are getting more active now? What about it? In fact, why are they doing that?" Arcee asked.  
"They are gathering more Energon so that we can have less of it and starve in the end when this planet runs out of it," Cliffjumper believed.  
"That may be, but I doubt Starscream is that far-sighted," Optimus said.  
"Is Starscream the boss? But I thought that this guy named Megatron is," Alyssa pitched in.  
"Megatron left three years ago and left Starscream in charge here. It may be that he is now returning, and Starscream is preparing for that," Optimus explained.

No one said anything.  
(What should _we_ do about this situation?) Bumblebee asked.  
"We must prepare," Optimus said, "and gather as much Energon as we get."  
"So you mean more patrols?" Bulkhead asked.  
"Yes," the Prime nodded solemnly. "And when it comes to you, Alyssa, you have a point about progressing your mutation. However, it is very risky-"  
"I know, Optimus! I know! And I am willing to wager everything!" Alyssa interrupted. Now she wanted it more than ever now that another Autobot would be even more needed. She had to do this.

Optimus said nothing as he looked away from the girl to the aghast Ratchet, who then shrugged and shook his head.  
"If she really thinks she can pull this one off, be my guest. It's her fault if it goes wrong," the medic said.  
"It won't go wrong," Alyssa said quietly, but everyone heard her. "It won't."

 **/Transformers Prime (c) Hasbro, the humans of this story (c) Me/**


End file.
